ONLY LOOK AT ME
by ricosuave111
Summary: Max was the unnoticed, bullied girl, labeled as emo who nobody cared about, who hid under her twin sister's shadow. Fang was her torturer, the stereotypical hot jock, who harbors a dark secret that nobody knows about. Will he tear her apart, or will they find a way to be able to fix each other?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- Max  
I pulled my hood lower down over my head, watching my feet as I walked up the concrete stairs to union mountain high school. I was Max, the schools outcast. It seemed like every school had one in movies, but my life was far from anything out of hollywood. I had learned over time to wear earbuds all the time, except in classes so I wouldn't hear the smug comments about me as I walked from class to class.

I pushed past the heavy black doors and into the halls, pulling the sleeves of my black pullover down over my hands farther and balling the cuffs in my fists. We had just finished thanksgiving break, so being back wasn't so stale like a regular monday.

I was almost to my locker, when someone stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the hall. I knew who it was, the black v-neck and signature black leather jacket gave it away. Nick had bullied me since eighth grade when we switched schools, we being me and my twin sister Maya.

His lips moved like he was talking to me, but I looked back down at my feet and hurried past him, hoping he would dismiss me and go find his equally as awful friends. I hurried through the sea of people to my locker. As fast as I could, I undid the combination and grabbed my chemistry book, whipping my hands out from behind the door as Nick slammed the metal locker shut, making me drop my book.

I crouched and scooped the book up off the ground, but was yanked up by my bicep, coming face to face with Nick, who kept his impassive face he flicked my left earbud away from my ear.

"Hey Maxie." He said with a smirk, but I just watched him blankly, trying not to flinch as he gripped my wrist firmly so I wouldn't twist away from him.

"I missed you and you won't even say hey back to me?" Nick frowned, and I felt a small twinge of joy at making him angry.

He lashed out and firmly grabbed my jaw, the palm of him hand pressed against my throat. I raised my free hand, and gripped his wrist, watching my sleeve so that it didn't slip.

"Hey Maxie." He growled, his face uncomfortably close to mine. I fought the urge to head0butt him but kept it down. I knew he wanted me to greet him, but I wouldn't do what he wanted, and just stared at him blankly, refusing to say "Hey" back to him. In all the time I had gone to the same school as him I had only uttered a few, short sentences to him, some of them not even audible. He groaned and let go of me, and I looked back down at my red vans, before he shoved me hard against the lockers, my head resounding off the cold metal with a clang. I sunk to the ground, my eyes screwed shut.

I opened them to see Nick shoving angrily through the crowd, who hadn't even stopped to see what had happened, they were used to it by now. I picked myself up off the ground, adjusted my beanie under my hood, and clutched my chemistry book tighter to my chest, the back of my head throbbing after bouncing off the lockers. I slowly stood up, ducking under the frowning eyes that had suddenly turned on me. I rushed off down the crowded hall to my chemistry class, sliding into my seat at the back lab table, all by myself.

I plunked my backpack down on the table, resting my arms down on the black table and laying my head in my arms, not even bothering to put in my earbuds. I heard the scraping of the lab stools and the loud talk and yelling of the other kids in my chemistry class. I peeked up over my sleeve to see my sister walk in, flanked my her cronies, Lissa, Brigid, and Ella.  
I snorted a little to myself as she eyes up the whole room while posing with one hand on her hip, tossing her perfectly straight, blonde hair. I dropped my head back down into my arms, hoping Lissa would decide that doting on my perfect sister was better than picking on me. I heard a lab stool being pulled away from under the table, and someone sit down in it across from me, and put their backpack down on the table across from me. I carefully peeked up from under my hood to see if it was Lissa, but was shocked to see a guy who I had never seen sitting across from me, watching me expectantly. I slowly sat up, not breaking eye contact with the guy, nobody ever sat with me.

"I'm James, but call me Iggy." The guy said, and split a grin at me, quickly extending his hand towards me from across the table. I just stared at it for a second, before hesitantly accepting it. Any friendship for a few minutes was totally okay with me.  
He smiled brightly at me, and firmly gripped my hand across the table, and I cracked a small smile back at him. I looked at him from across the table, he was pale, really pale with grayish-blue eyes and messy strawberry blonde hair that was longer in the front than in the back.

I drew my arm back into myself and looked down at my sleeve-covered hands as the class started and the teacher walked into the room.  
I flipped open my notebook and started to take notes as the class went on, but slowly drifted into writing poems on the sides and left page of my notebook. It was another little secret that I had, I had filled journals and notebooks with my poetry, but never let anybody see or read them.

I quickly glanced up and saw that the Iggy kid was watching me again, and I pulled my hood down over my face, wishing he would just leave me alone. Suddenly, my notebook was swiped out from under my arm as the teacher turned back towards the board. I reached out for it, to try and stop Iggy from taking it, but he held it down out of my reach. I glared at him, but he was too busy looking down at the new poems that I had written on the footnotes of my notebook.  
"Give that back!" I whispered frantically, but he just smiled and held up a finger as I tried to reach for it over the table. his eyes scanned the side of my notes agonizingly slow. I withdrew and waited for him to tear out the page and throw it around the room, for his lips to curve up in a mocking smile and to venomously recite each of my emotional poems, but he just nodded solemnly and passed my notebook back to me across the table.

"You're good, did you ever try writing song lyrics?" He asked, nonchalantly, jotting down another line of notes. I quietly debated in my head revealing any shard of information about myself to him, but my mouth responded before my brain.

"No." He smiled a little at me across the table, and shook his head at me a little.

"I'm not going to bite your head off or anything." My head snapped back up at him, and he toyed with the rings in his binder.

"I'm new, but I moved here with my brother and sister, if you want to sit with us at lunch." Iggy said with a smile as he dumped his stuff into his backpack and leaving the room with the other kids as the teacher dismissed us. I sat dumbfounded for a few seconds before sluggishly putting my books into my black jansport backpack. Had I just made a friend? Or as he just messing with me, like a few people always did at the beginning of every year. I made my way out of the classroom and to my next class, keeping my head low but still watching out for any cheerleaders of jocks as I hurried to my next class. I saw out of the corner of my eye Lisa shove Fang up against a locker, her hands on his chest, a coy smile on his face revealing straight white teeth. I turned my eyes back to the ground and put in my earbuds, the sight of them making my stomach churn.

The rest of my classes flew by until it was lunch, instead of barely crawling by. On the outside, I was just as boring as usual, but inside I was super excited to have someone to sit by, instead of sitting by myself on the grass outside. I got in line, and kept my eyes on my feet, not hearing anything around me except for my music. I jumped when somebody tapped my shoulder, and I jumped, my arms going around my middle securely.

It was just Iggy, with a huge grin on his face. I pulled out one earbud and half smiled at him.

"Hi Max!" He said, and pulled out a girl from behind him, she had perfect mocha skin, and long, shiny brown hair with little caramel highlights and happy, brown eyes.

"Hey." I said, and she squealed and bounced on the balls of her feet.

"I'm Nudge! i'm new too, but I met Iggy last hour and I didn't have any friends but we sat at the same table so now I think we're friends! Do you want to be my friend?" She asked, freezing in place with a smile on her face as I tried to register what she was saying because she said all of it so fast. My brain short circuited for a second, she wanted to be my friend too?

"Uhh, sure." I responded dumbly, and she squealed again and hugged me, Iggy just smiled at me over her shoulder as I awkwardly tried to hug her back, but my arms were stuck to my sides in a death grip.

We got our food, pizza dippers, and Iggy asked me where I usually sat. I dragged my toes around on the polished cafeteria floor.

"I sit outside in the grass." His face lit up, and he marched through the doors to go outside, with Nudge walking alongside them and me trailing behind, Nudges arm looped under mine. Iggy climbed a small hill with a scrawny tree and stretched out comfortably in the grass and took a huge bite out of his apple. Nudge and I sat next to him as two other kids burst out the door we just had gone through, a boy and a girl who looked like twins.

The boys head whipped around before landing on us. I shrunk back, hoping they wouldn't talk to me, but Iggy waved them over. Nudge scooted over and they sat down, forming a circle.

"Max, this is Angel and Gazzy, my humble siblings. They're freshmen, but pretty cool." The blonde siblings turned to them in sync,

"Hi Max." they said at once, making me crack a smile and respond with a small,

"Hi." The girls face lit up, her fluffy blonde curls falling neatly around her face as she took a bite of her pizza dippers.

"You're really pretty Max." She said, flashing me a smile, and I swear my eyes almost fell out of my head. She gave me a confused look, before turning to talk to Iggy and meet Nudge. I watched in silence as they talked and laughed, ducking my head to smother a smile when one of them would crack a good comment. I talked a little bit, saying I had lived in Colorado for six years, and Angel asked me why I didn't bring any friends with me outside.

"I brought Iggy..." I replied good enough, and Iggy fist pumped and Angel laughed a little, still watching me through clear blue eyes. I leaned back in the dark green grass, raising my face to the sun. It felt so weird, to be outside eating lunch in the warm sun with possibly my first friends since fifth grade.

"What color is your hair Max?" Nudge asked, snapping me out of my daydream. I looked down to see all of their heads turn towards me, Nudge winding one of her curls around her finger.

"Uhh, Blonde." I responded, feeling a little weirded out. Nudges eyes lit up, and she flicked a finger towards my hood.

"Can I braid it?" She asked, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" She laughed.

"Because why not?" She asked, rocking back and forth on the grass. I shrugged and she stood and plopped down behind me, pulling my hood down off my green beanie, and taking my beanie off my head, handing it to me as my dark blonde hair tumbled down from under my hat. Nudge began to gently finger through my hair, carefully taking out any tangles.

"Your hair is like, soooo soft and thick and shiny." Nudge murmured, and I felt my cheeks turn a little pink, not quite used to receiving any compliments, But then again, probably fewer than four people at school had seen my hair until now. She french braided it down the back of my head, tying off the end with a black band.

"Done!" She exclaimed, and went back to her spot, taking a drink from her milk. I felt down the back of my head, feeling the neat braid under my fingers. I picked up my hat to put it back on,

"AH-AH-AH! NO!" I jumped at Nudge yelling and waving her arms.

"Don't! I like your hair out! at least until lunch is over!" She begged, opening her eyes wide and sticking her lip out just a tiny bit. I looked at her shocked, and couldn't say no the that face, and lowered the hat back to my lap.

"Fine, end of lunch." I said, twirling the end of my long braid. Nudge looked satisfied, and went back to talking animatedly to Angel about Miley and Liam's engagement. I finished up my lunch, and said goodbye to my new friends, who said "bye" with bright smiles as I picked up my tray and made my way back to the door closest to the school. I balanced my tray against the wall and my hip and pulled my lime green beanie back over my hair, tucking the end up under the hat so it wouldn't show, and pulled my hood back up before going back into the school.

I didn't see anybody, and made my way quickly down the hallway towards the roar of the lunchroom. turned a corner and the tables of loud students appeared in view, I ducked my head and put my tray on top of another red stack of them. I turned and wiped my hands on my jeans.

Maybe the rest of this year would be okay for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2-Max

**Wow, serious thanks for everyone who followed me and my story last chapter! Super cool! please give me a review :) thanks for reading! **  
**-Ricoh**

I walked home slowly, my sister and a few of her friends trailing behind me, probably throwing insults about me, but I couldn't hear them over my music. I tightened the straps of my backpack tighter as my house came into view. My house wasn't small, but it wasn't huge either. Red-brick with green shutters and a few plants and flowers that had long since died since the air started getting colder and colder. I walked up the porch steps and pushed through the door, my mom walking around the corner, wiping her hands on her apron just like a stereotypical mom.

"Hi mom." I said, pulling out my earbuds as Maya blew through the door behind me.

"Hi, Max, Maya." My mom said with a smile, which Maya returned eagerly, and elbowed me hard in the ribs when mom turned when I untied my shoes. My mom was pretty, with long, dark hair and smiling eyes. She owned a veterinary clinic downtown, so she worked short hours at the office and had a good amout of time at home.

I dashed up the stairs to my room, trailed by Maya, who swung her red pumps with one hand. I turned into my room and slammed the door, my warm room welcoming.

My mom had let me redo my room over the summer, so everything was still fresh, The dark brown walls, lavender bedding with tons of pillows and blankets, cream and purple bean bag chairs, and my huge hardwood desk that took up almost half of one wall, and my own bathroom. I had actually fought Maya for this room, but in the end sneakers beat out her stupid heels and skirts in getting in the final shove down the stairs. She shared a bathroom with my mom, who never took up much time to get ready in the morning.

I tossed my jacket onto my bed and pushed back my hat and my hat, tossing it into a basket that barely held all my hats. I had as many hats in as many colors as Maya had in shoes. I ran my hand down the back of my braid as the afternoon sun shone in slants through my huge windows, that took up my entire right wall. I peeled off my loose jeans and pulled on baggy sweatpants, and pulled out my laptop from under my bed.

I didn't even bother checking my Facebook anymore, all the posts and mean comments on the very few pictures I was tagged in drove me away from the wonders of facebook last year, not saying I missed Farmville or anything. I flipped around on tumblr for a while before my mom called up the stairs.

"Max! Maya! Dinner!" I sprang up from my bed and was out the door, almost colliding with Maya in the hallway. She screeched as I sprinted down the stairs and took my place at the table, my mom setting a plate of barbecued chicken, pasta and peas in front of me, still steaming. I bounced as Maya made her way, tortuously slow to the table.

"Hurry up." I grumbled under my breath, and she slid into her spot across from me. My mom slid her plate in front of her, a small wrinkle appearing in Mayas forehead as she scanned the food. My mom didn't notice and sat down at the head of the table next to me. I grabbed a hot biscuit from the bowl in the center of the table and spread butter over it, and took a huge bite out of my chicken, my mom chuckling at me as I got sauce all over my left cheek.

When the butter melted on my biscuit, I swallowed my Chicken and pushed the top half of the biscuit into my mouth, sighing with satisfaction at the glorious taste. By the time I had plowed through my chicken, Maya had finished cutting every single bit of food on her plate into mouse-sized pieces.

"How was school?" My mom asked, smiling nervously at me, She knew I never brought any friends home since we moved here and probably stopped expecting I had made some.

"I made a friend today." I blurted out, and quickly stuffed a spoonful of peas into my mouth. My moms knife fell to the table and she froze. There was a reason why I didn't say friends, plural.

"You what?" She asked a little faintly. Maya snorted from her place across from me but My mom didn't even glance at her.

"I made a friend." I said again, trying to act like it was no big deal, but inside I was celebrating my friendship-victory. My mom slowly picked up her knife and cut up her chicken.

"Are they human?" My mom asked, almost carefully. And I nodded. My mom suddenly looked delighted and took a bit of chicken.

"I do believe that this is grounds for a celebration!" She said in a mock posh accent, and got up from the table and ran into the kitchen. I followed her like a lost puppy chewing my last bites of chicken, because whenever I get a celebration, it ends in cookies. I danced impatiently as my mom got down all the ingredients from the cabinets, before shooing my back out into the dining room where Maya was sitting like a carved angel, slowly eating her food, claiming I gave her bad joo-joo in the kitchen. It was true, I was a cooking nightmare, my culinary skills ending at toast, pop tarts, and frozen pizzas.

I sat back down next to Maya, who sent me a fake smile from across the table.

"New friends huh?" She asked, sounding almost nice, and I nodded warily, all my excitement being smothered, just by talking to her, because very rarely did something good come out of our conversations.

"Is that who did your hair?" She asked, chewing on a piece of chicken and balancing her chin on the back of her hand. I nodded and ate another biscuit plain, glaring at her straight in the face, She ate her last piece of chicken and said cooly,

"You should stick to those hats." She picked up her plate and went past me into the kitchen, leaving me dumbfounded by myself in the dining room, looking down at my empty plate. Maya was always the best at getting to me, because she didn't need to say hardly anything to hurt me, but it still hurt nonetheless. I picked up my plate, downed the rest of my water and carried everything into the kitchen and put it in the sink, my mom mixing up cookies. I rinsed my plate and put it into the dishwasher, and my mom smiled at me,

"I'll call you down when the cookies are ready, okay?" She said with a smile, and I nodded and made my way back up into my room. I went in and flopped down on my stomach on my bed, turning my laptop back on. The screen flickered to life and I went back to tumblr, continuing to scroll.

I slapped my laptop lid shut, and got up off my bed, pulling my sweatshirt over my head, avoiding looking down at my left wrist. I was left in my dragon shirt, with one elder dragon wrapped around a blood dragon, I smiled down at it, and my mom called me from downstairs. I snatched my hoodie and yanked it back on, running back down the stairs, The heavenly smell of my moms cookies luring me to the kitchen. I heard Maya coming down the stairs and someone knocking at the door. I folded myself tight against the door frame as Maya answered the door.

"Max, I'll be in my study if you need anything." She said, breezing past me and into the study. Maya opened the door as my mom left, and no other than Nick and Lissa stepped into my house. My eyes bugged out of my head and I quickly ducked into the cabinet under the sink, my plate of cookies balanced on my knees. I heard them greet each other, and their footsteps came closer and closer to the kitchen, I breathed slowly and carefully, trying to be as quiet as I could. They herded into the kitchen, and the fridge opened. Somebody jumped on the counter right above me, and started swinging their legs, banging their heels against the doors to the cabinet, making me jump a little.

"Where's Max?" Nick asked Maya, who snorted. Lissa sighed, I froze under the sink. Did they come here just to torture me? My one safe place from school?

"Why do you care? She'd probably just do her awkward toe drag and stare at the ground with nothing to say." Lissa said snidely, and Maya grumbled under her breath.

"Loser." Nick said nothing, which surprised me. I expected him to start spewing hot garbage about me.

"She said she made friends today." Lissa actually laughed wholeheartedly.

"Oh, as if. How could someone like her make friends, if her face doesn't scare them off, her personality definitely would. I mean, i've never even seen her hair." My sister laughed, but Nick remained silent, but through the crack between the cabinets, I saw his black socks on the floor, right across from my sisters bare feet and perfectly pedicured toes.

"Yeah, her and that James guy were talking in Chemistry. He must have a thing for lost puppies." Lissa said, snickering to herself. Nicks feet turned to the fridge and the sound of a can popping and he cleared his throat.

"Maybe its about time she got some friends." He said calmly, but both girls fell totally silent. The tension was so thick I swear I could have cut it with a knife, that is if I had the use of my arms at the moment.

"What?" Lissa asked, her voice high and squeaky. Maya pushed off from the counter.

"Whatever, lets go upstairs." Her feet disappeared from sight, and Nicks and Lisa's feet followed her. I waited until I heard Mayas door slam before pushing opening the doors and falling out of the cabinet on my side, my cookies rattling on the linoleum floor. I took a deep breath, and stretched and straightened, having been cramped under the sink. Still sitting on the floor, I took a thoughtful bite into a cookie.

Had Nick just stood up for me?


	3. Chapter 3

chapter 3-Max  
I sat out in the grass again with Nudge and Angel, listening contently as they poured over a fashion magazine. I never had anything like that, or had any interest in it, but I did like when Nudge braided my hair back from my face, but I would never tell her that. I laid out in the grass, not even bothering to wonder what kind of trouble Gazzy and Iggy were getting themselves into. Suddenly Nudge gasped, and I shot up from where I was lying down in the grass, my hat crooked and hanging over one eye.

"What's up?" I asked, and her eyes were bugged out over a picture of another celebrity I didn't recognize.

"Her DRESS is what's up!" She squealed and the magazine shook, and angel just smiled and put her hand down of the magazines shiny page, steadying it so she could read the little blurbs on the side. I chuckled softly, flopping back down on the grass, and Nudge turned her face to me.

"So Maxie..." She said, twirling a piece of her hair around one finger. I groaned and put my hands over my face. She moved her tray and scooted closer to me, hanging over my face.

"Who do you like Max?" I moved my hands away from my face.

"I don't see enough people to like them." I responded plainly, but Angel rolled her eyes.

"Oh please Max." I sat upright, propping myself up on my elbows.

"Well, what about you?" I asked Nudge, whose mocha face flushed. I grinned evilly at her, and she dropped her head in her hands, embarrassed.

"Well?" Angel asked, her delicate face full of excitement. Suddenly Nudges head snapped up, her caramel colored curls flying around her face, but she brushed them away hastily.

"I know! Lets have a sleepover at my house on friday! I'll ask my mom If Iggy and Gazzy can come too." I nodded, but inside I was cheering. My first sleepover, like ever.

"That would be super cool!" I said, bouncing totally uncharacteristically in place on my seat bones.  
We cheered and picked up our trays and backpacks, dumping our trays and walked to our next classes. I felt like I had a new line of defense, having new friends, even for just four days. Fang and his jock friends only bothered me when I was alone, and all Maya and her friends only talked behind my back or confronted me alone. For the first time in a long time I felt happy at school.  
Nudge waved goodbye to me happily as I turned into my english class, and took my desk at the back of the room. I hunched down in my seat as Nick, Sam and Dylan entered the room, loudly, if anything.  
Nick looked straight at me, a smirk forming on his face. I dropped my gaze to my fingers twisting my grey hoodie sleeve. I still saw out of the corner the three of them make their way towards me, and I tried to shrink smaller into my seat, but Nick still slid across my desk and looked an arm around my shoulders. I shrunk smaller, I hated being touched, especially by swollen-headed douches.

"Maxie, haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been babes?" I refused to respond, and just twisted my sleeve some more. Nick tightened his grip on my shoulders and shook me hard, laughing as if I had said something funny.

"Oh jeez Max..." He trailed off. I still refused to respond. I could feel his hand tighten on my thin shoulder, a sign he was tensing up, and my stomach dropped.

"You know, I've never seen her hair, have you, Dylan?" Dylan grunted a no, and Sam only crossed his arms over his chest. Nick reached towards my grey hood, which covered a dark purple beanie. My hands flew to my head, holding my hood down to my head as Nick tried to pull it off. He gripped my wrist and tried to pull my arm away, but his fingers latched around...  
I gasped and I flung my body away from him, sprawling across the floor. He laughed and stood up from the desk, but Sam and Dylan looked alarmed.

"What the hell Maxie?" Nick said, confusion over his dark features. He took a step towards me, and I scrambled up from the floor, looking him straight in the face. I looked at him straight in the face, and for the first time, I actually looked him in the face. His eyes were black, not brown, but black. His pupils the same color as his irises, creepy.

"What's wrong Max?" He asked, and concern actually lighting behind his dark eyes. My jaw actually dropped before I clamped it closed again. He wanted to ask me what was wrong, he was my problem! I folded my arms over my chest, looking down at my shoes, just glaring at them. If I had superpowers there would be little holes burned through my shoes.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked gently. And I whipped my head to glare at him, furious.

"You! You're my problem! You always stomp around on me like im your property or something, did you ever consider that maybe I had feelings too!" I hissed, and his eyes narrowed. I straightened up, feeling strong for standing up for myself. Nick just looked back at me, his dark eyes had gone expressionless when I told him he was my problem.

"Max, I.."

"Save it for someone who cares." I spat, cutting him off as I walked around him to my desk in the back as students began to flood into the room. I didn't turn to spare him a glance, but took out my notebook and "Persepolis" book, staring straight ahead.  
Adrenaline mixed with my blood from yelling at Nick, and now I was jumpy as Nick and his friends took their spots across the room, but I could still feel their eyes on me. I yanked my sleeves lower over my hands as the teacher entered and started class. I spaced out until the end of class, so I could race to study hall with Gazzy. I looked up from my book to check the board, out of my peripheral vision Nick was staring right at me.  
I dropped my head, not wanting him to look at me. I probably made him angry, shoot...why did I do that? I dropped my head down into my arms on the table, wanting to disappear into the floor. The bell rang, signaling next class, and I bolted for the door, but a hand grabbed me by the bicep. I didn't need to look up to see who it was.

"I don't know what you're hiding, But I intend to find out." I ripped my arm out of Nicks hand, hissing,

"You have never known me, and you never will."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4-Fang  
**Hello! So, this is a Fang P.O.V. just so you can see what's going through his head. This is not a miggy fanfic, despite requests, sorry :(. Thanks everybody for the reviews and favorites!**  
**-RICOH**

I watched Max follow a girl with wavy, blonde hair and another african american looking girl. I wanted to follow them, find out what they did to be Max's first friends ever in high school. I wanted to sit in the grass with them and listen to Max speak, hear what her voice sounded like.

Someone slapped me on the arm, and I turned to see Lissa pouting at me. I wanted to groan and shove her head away from me. I don't know why I was friends with the people I was, most of them were just stupid, hot headed, and arrogant. I didn't like any of them but Ella, who was too shy to speak up for herself and just got dragged around by Maya.

Lissa gripped back onto my arm, like a leech, I though.

"Nick, are you even listening to me?" She asked, her acrylic fingernails digging into my jacket.

"Yeah." I said, shaking off my thoughts and turning to face her. She flipped her bright red hair, the only thing I actually liked about her. Sure, she was pretty, but she ruined it with makeup and dressed like a prostitute.

"I'm having a party on friday." She said, batting her lashes at me, I knew that a party in their words was just alcohol, inappropriate dancing, and easy sex, none of which I participated in.

"I'm busy." I told her flatly, and she frowned, the concealer covering her eyebrows cracking.

"You're so boring. Maya, Nicky says he won't go." Lissa called to Maya down the table, who was slowly making her way through a cup of apple slices. She looked up at me, her brown eyes shooting sparks at me. Maya, despite being Max's twin, was totally different, I think. Maya was popular, cheerleader, wore nothing with more coverage than a v-neck, and had pale, highlighted blonde hair. Max only wore sweatshirts, skinny jeans, beanies, and nobody ever saw her hair. She was called amish for a year and a half because so few people have seen her hair.

"You're coming Nick." Maya told me very matter-of-factly, dismissing me with a wave of her hand. Lissa looked up at me, widening her eyes and smiling.

"There, Its settled Nicky!" She squealed, smashing her face against my arm. I slid off my chair, ripping my arm away from her. Leaving my tray, I walked out of the lunchroom, leaving all my so-called friends behind me, gaping at me.  
I checked my sleeve, which had a slight, skin colored haze from Lissa's face being pressed up against my bicep. I frowned and tried to rub it off, but It stuck to my leather jacket like glue. I ran a hand through my hair, I wanted to go find Max and her friends, but I could already see the scene playing out through my head, Max shutting down and looking down at her old red Van's, fiddling with her sweatshirt and her friends trying to find something to say.

I know what you're thinking, if I'm so mean to Max, then why do you think about her so much? And even I don't have the answer. When she first moved here, she was scrawny and small, but she grew up, slowly. She went from being plucky to perfect, well, what I saw of her at least.

I undid the combination on my locker and took out my backpack, throwing in my persepolis book and walking across the building to my english class. People soon flooded the halls as lunch ended and Sam and Dylan caught up to me, bickering about something, but I didn't listen.

I pushed through the doors and saw Max sitting alone in the room, her face hidden under her hood. I walked fast towards her, and slid across her desk, looping my arm around her neck.

"Maxie, haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been babes?" I smiled down at her, but she didn't move, aside from her shoulders stiffening under my arm.

"Jeez Max..." I trailed off. Talking to her was like talking to myself. Max very rarely responded, no matter what I did. I swear that girl had only muttered three words to me in four years.

" You know Dylan, I've never seen her hair." And it was true, I hadn't. Maybe I was being cruel, but getting any words out of her was better than none at all. Dylan grunted a no and Sam just looked at me expectantly.

I reached to her hood with my right hand, expecting her to just sit there, but her hands gripped the hood down to her head, hard. All I saw under her hood was a stripe of her purple beanie. I released her hood and tried to pull away her left arm, but she hissed in a breath, shoving herself away from me hard and was sprawled out on the floor.  
I laughed a little at the sight of her sprawled out on the ground, and walked forward to offer her a hand up, but she

scrambled away from me and got up on her own.

"What the hell Maxie?" I said, this was weird behavior, even for her. She folded her arms and set her jaw, looking down at her shoes. her eyes flicked up, looking straight into mine. Her eyes were the color of these french chocolates that my mom used to eat, that swirled between different types of chocolate, but they were dead, no emotion showing whatsoever.

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling bad for whatever set her off. But her head shipped up and she looked furious, surprising me.

"You! You're my problem! You always stomp around on me like im your property or something, did you ever consider that maybe I had feelings too!" She hissed, looking livid. I just stared back at her, that was probably the longest sentence I had ever heard come out of her mouth, but she was angry.  
I felt really bad.

"Max, I..." I managed to get out before she cut me off.

"Save it for someone who cares." She said, shoving past me without sparing me so much as a glance, she sat down in her chair as kids began to stream into the room, and Sam and Dylan just looked at me, shocked. I felt like Max had just ran over my head with a lawnmower. She probably hated me, I didn't blame her if she did. I shrugged like it was no big deal, and went to my seat across the class from her. Dylan chuckled something about her being a huge drama queen, and Sam laughed along with him. I acted like everything was fine, but I felt sick to my stomach. All I did was grab her arm, Its not like I shocked her or anything.

I watched her from across the classroom as her eyes flickered from the notes on the blackboard back down to her notebook. I resisted the urge to slam my fist into the table and run screaming and out of character out of the room.  
English slowly crawled by, and when the bell rang, I whipped on my backpack and grabbed Max by the bicep before she could bolt past me and into the river of bodies out in the hallway,

"I don't know what you're hiding, but I intend to find out." I told her, and she straightened to look at me, square in the face.

"You never knew me, and you never will." She ripped her arm out of my grip, and vanished into the sea of people. Sam whacked me hard on the back, with his huge grin on his face.

"What are you trying to accomplish with that one?" before leaving the room.  
Max's words stung, no doubt about it, but why? I was her bully, not some creepy secret lover.  
I left the room and walked to history, where I sat next to a new friend.

"Ig, I need some help." Iggy looked up from where he was playing angry birds on his phone.

"How can I assist." He said, putting the phone away as class started.

"I think I like this girl."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- MAX

I threw my blankets out between Angel and Iggy on the floor. We were at Nudges house, getting ready for a comedy marathon, waiting for the rest of our group to show up.  
When my mom had found out I was invited to a sleepover at a friends house, she went mute for a few minutes, before being super happy and hugging me. Maya just rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

"I'm going to Lissa's for a party then, too." My mom looked disapproving, and the smile faded from her face.

"I'll have to check what you wear before you go and you need to be home before curfew." My mom told her firmly, but she had just rolled her eyes and went back to picking at her lasagna.

Nudge ran screaming into the room.

"Angel! Lets do Max's hair!" Angel nodded, her fluffy blonde waves flying around her face.

"But its a sleepover, no one will care about my hair." I said, I wasn't wearing my hood up, but I did have a white beanie on the back of my head, my hair falling out around my shoulders.

"Exactly! No one will care!" Nudge said as she pushed me towards the stairs. Iggy sent me a sorry glance from where we was lying on the couch watching T.V. before Gazzy showed up and the pizzas came. Nudge pushed me into her room, with purple walls and purple and gold bedding, a small balcony and a huge makeup/desk/ mirror thingy, Her room was undeniably Nudge. I went and sat down in the still thing in front of the mirror, and looked up at my reflection. I didn't think I was that ugly, but I had been told so many times that I was, so I had covered up all the mirrors in my room with jackets, so I wouldn't see my own reflection.

Nudge turned on a curling iron and swept bottles of nail polish and makeup away from the front of the desk thing.

"Can I put some mascara on you?" Nudge asked, and I gave her a small smile.

"Sure." Nudge squealed and sorted through the makeup scattered all over. I didn't mind being made up, but that was too a point. I think I only like it because I never had anyone to fawn over me before. She swiped a thin layer of brown mascara over my top lashes, emphasizing my brown eyes and making them shine. I watched Nudge as she wrapped pieces of my long hair around the barrel of the of the iron and dropped the shiny, curly pieces of hair. My hair now fell down to below my chest in messy brown and honey colored curls. I watched my reflection carefully, hardly believing that the girl in the mirror could look so pretty with just a tiny bit of makeup and her hair done.

"Now lets change your outfit!" Nudge squealed, and I snapped out of my trance.

"uhh, no." I responded blandly, and Nudge huffed, going to her closet, clearly not taking no as an answer.

"I think either forrest green or red, you wear too much grey and black." My eyes flew open, I was not about to change in front of Nudge, let alone lose my hoodie for a possible v-neck or short sleeve.

"Please, Nudge." I begged, but she ignored me and tossed a dark red, you guessed it, v-neck out of the closet, where it lay, a sad, crumpled mess on the floor.

"Just try it Max." Nudge responded, crossing her arms over her chest and looked at me with an evil glint in her eyes.

"But I'm wearing a sports bra." I responded desperately, and her eyes flew open.

"Oh my gosh! Why didn't you say so sooner!" She yelled and dove back into her closet, and I slumped back against the desk, relieved. She reappeared in a few seconds with a dark green shirt in her fist above her head. I stiffened, but relaxed when I saw the long sleeves dangling down by her face.

"I found something! Its sooooo you!" Nudge said, and tossed it to me. It was soft and thin, the sleeves a darker forest green than the body panel, and a small triangle in the middle of the collar the same dark green as the sleeves.

I shrugged and Nudge grinned and covered her eyes with her hands and turned around to face her closet so I could change. I pulled off my hoodie and pulled the green shirt over my head. It was long enough to bunch up on my wrists and the hem of it t on my hips, but was still loose enough to be comfortable.

"I like it." I said, and Nudge whipped around, and bounced around a little more.

"You look, like, nutso good Max!" She yelled and steered me by the shoulders to a full length mirror hanging off the back of her door. I looked at my reflection, not quite sure how I felt about the made up Max. The shirt made me look less frumpy and more girly in a reserved way, the color of it going well with my dark blue skinny jeans. I looked down at my toes, my big-bang socks the only thing that still felt familiar about me.

Iggy burst into Nudges room, and he looked at me for a second before talking calmly to Nudge.

"There is a stranger in your room." He remarked, before smiling playfully at me, and I looked back down at my socks, feeling a little embarrassed. I only had a second before I was snatched up off my feet by Iggy and thrown over his shoulder and he ran down the steps.

"Iggy!" I yelled, grabbing fistfuls of the back of his shirt as his bony shoulder dug into my stomach. He ran into the family room and dumped me down on the couch, next to Angel, who studies me with wide eyes.

"Nudge did good." She said with a smile, and I huffed. Her laughed a little and grabbed a bowl of potato chips from the center of the coffee table and pushed two into her mouth.  
The doorbell rang and Nudge slid down the stairs, and Iggy slid across the hardwood floor in his white socks, almost face-planting. He yanked open the door, and I got a smile ready to greet Gazzy.

But that sure as hell wasn't Gazzy.

Nick Ride stood at the other side of the door, in all his dark glory, smiling back at Iggy who had just opened the door. They greeted each other and Iggy let him in, while I turned, trying to hide my face, and hissed to Angel.

"Why is he here?" I asked, and she looked at me, her huge blue eyes confused.

"Iggy invited him, they're friends." She said, pushing a few more chips into her mouth.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know it was a big deal!" she said, holding up her hands in surrender, and I groaned. Nudge bounded down the stairs and shouted my name at the top of her lungs.

"MAX!" I whipped around to look at her, and I saw Nicks eyes turn to me out of the corner of my eye.

"Max is here?" Nick asked Iggy, and Iggy nodded and jerked his head over to where I was sitting on the couch next to Angel. I started to panic, this was supposed to be my first sleepover with my first friends, definitely not with Nick.  
I got up off the couch and walked towards Nudge, who grabbed my arm and towed me towards the kitchen. Nick moved towards me,

"Hey Maxie." He stood in front of me, but I plowed through him and refused to make eye contact, hurrying after Nudge, who stood watching me with wide eyes as I grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the kitchen.

"Uhh, dude! You just totally dissed Nick freaking Ride! He's like the hottest guy in the school!" I rolled my eyes.

"More like biggest douche in the school." Nudge looked at me in confusion, before smoothing out her expression and grabbing two frozen pizzas from the freezer.

"Lets talk later, okay?" She said, and I sighed. Nudge, despite being a total chatterbox and massive fashionista, was a great friend. I nodded and boosted myself up to sit on the counter while Nudge peeled the plastic off the pizzas and slid them into the oven.

"Now, let the great movie-ing begin!" She shouted, and ran through the kitchen threshold and into the family room, launching herself into the couch next to Angel. I cracked a small smile before taking in a nervous breath and walking back into the family room. Nicks eyes watched me from the minute I turned around to kitchen threshold and kept on me as I went and sat next to Iggy on the floor in front of the T.V.. Gazzy had shown up while Nudge and I were in the kitchen and was now talking with Angel up on the couch behind me. My eyes flicked up to see Nicks trained on me, his arms crossed over his chest and eyes narrowed. I flicked my eyes back down as soon as Mine met his, and I forced away a blush that was rising in my cheeks. I didn't want him to look at me, I didn't even want him to be here. I scooted closer to Iggy, who fake yawned and stretched and plopped his arm down around my shoulders.

"Wow Iggy, so NOT fake." Angel laughed, and Iggy put his other hand over his heart, as if her words had stung him.

"Just because you are jealous of my love for the lovely Max does not give you the right to be a burden on our relationship," He howled dramatically, and I shook in laughter and dropped my head onto my knees. Nudge crawled forward from the couch to turn on the first movie. I tried to watch, but Nick watching me the entire movie made me feel like a mouse under a cats claw.  
When the oven beeped in the Kitchen, and Nudge groaned and started to get up, but I leaped up and stepped in front of her.

"I can get it." I said, a little too quickly.

"Are you sure?" Nudge asked, looking at me skeptically with one eyebrow raised. I nodded and walked fast into the kitchen. Poking the cancel button on the oven, I propped up my elbows on the counter and leaned my head into my hands. Why did this have to be so stressful? Shouldn't Nick have been at that party my sister mentioned yesterday? He should have been there instead of hanging out with who my sister dubbed as losers. I stood up straight and stretched my back, tossing my now curly hair over my shoulders and bent over to pull the pizza out of the oven. I turned to put it down on the counter, but came face to face with Nick.

I jumped, almost dropping the hot stone with the pizza. I sighed and dropped my head for a second before stepping around him to put the pizza down. I went back to the oven to get the other pizza when he spoke up.

"Why don't you talk to me?" He asked me, almost innocently. That is if I didn't already have a good idea of what he was trying to pull. I shot him a wary look over my shoulder as I stood up with the other pizza.

"Because I have nothing to say to you." His face went blank, and I put down the two pizzas down next to each other on the counter.

"What if I want to talk to you." I spurted a little laugh, and looked at him humorously. What could he possibly have to say to me. He made my first two years of high school hell, I hid from everyone because of him and all his jock friends.

"Piss off, Nick." I told him, and his eyes narrowed again. I got out the pizza cutter from a drawer next to the oven, and for a millisecond thought about throwing it at his face.

"What if I don't want to?" He asked, his arms folded over his chest, his leather jacket bunching up at the shoulders. I stood next to him again and began to cut the first pizza into sections. I froze, and slammed the pizza cutter down.

"Can you just leave me alone? I'm not any different than I was two weeks ago, so just leave me alone." I told him, shooting him my best glare, and he looked a little hurt, before his jaw clenched and his hands balled up into fists. I took a step away from him, but kept one eye on him.

"You are different, Aren't you?"

"No I'm not."

"What's with the hair then?"

"So what? I have hair. Did you think I was bald or something..."

"No. You know you don't have to be so hard to talk to." He said, and I just stopped and turned to him.

"Are you serious?" I asked him, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. Was he honestly saying I was hard to talk to? I had barely said more than a few sentences to him before and now it was like he wanted to be my friend. I took a step closer to him, putting on a small smile on my face. Something flashed through his eyes, but I was too busy trying not to breath in whatever idiot disease he was probably crawling with.

"You made my life hell for two years. I'm nothing because of you. What makes you think I would want anything to do with you now?" I said, my face dangerously close to his. I felt powerful and cruel, It was exhilarating to say the least.

"I didn't..." He started, but I slapped a hand over his mouth. Just glaring at him, straight in the eyes for a few seconds.

"You hurt me Nick. You hurt me so bad." I said, peeling my hand away from his mouth and turning to plop two pieces of pepperoni pizza onto a white, square plate. I didn't even to look back at him as I went back to my spot next to Iggy leaning against the couch as Zach Galifianakis played across the huge T.V..

"Does the volume have to be so loud?" I shouted to Iggy, who choked on laughter next to me. He nodded, before scrambling up and running to the kitchen, pushing Gazzy away as they slid on the smooth wood floor.

Angel slid down off the couch to sit next to me, picking up one of my pieces of pizza and taking a bite out of the side of it.

"What did he say to you?" She asked, her huge blue eyes mischievous. I sighed and took a bite of my pizza, turning all my focus to the T.V. and watching intently, but Angel kept poking me in the side.

"Did he ask you out!" My half chewed pizza was pulled harshly to the back of my throat when I took in a sharp breath. I started to choke, coughing and hunching forward. Nudge screamed and crawled across the couch to hit me hard between the shoulder blades with the heel of her hand a few times. I coughed a few more times before the food scraped down my throat and Iggy calmly walked back into the room.

"Is Max dying already?" I rolled my eyes, and he just grinned at me before coming to sit down next to me, five pieces of pepperoni pizza stacked on his plate. I shot a pointed look at Angel.

"No, no way in hell." Iggy just shook his head and muttered,

"Girls..." Under his breath. Gazzy and Nick walked back into the room, And Gazzy chucked a diet coke at Nudge, who squealed as it hit her in the stomach. Nick passed in front of me and Iggy, silently taking a seat in an overstuffed cream colored chair, taking a huge bit out of his first piece of pizza, his eyes trained on the T.V.. The muscles in his jaw moved with every chew, the corners of his mouth twitching up in a smile every time something funny happened on the screen.  
I realized I was staring and quickly looked away. I made myself busy by stuffing pizza into my mouth. He was such an asshole, but if only people looked on the outside as they were on the inside.

"Truth or dare!" Nudge shouted, and I groaned, resting the back of my head on the couch. I had read and seen movies where that game was played, and it almost never ended well. Iggy just grinned his stupid grin at me, and Nudge hugged my shoulders from where she was sitting on the couch behind me.

"Its either Truth or dare or spin the bottle Maxie." My eyes flew open. That game ended even worse than truth or dare, and Nick was here, and any chance of having to kiss that creep needed to be no chance.

"Fine!" I shouted over her pleas, and everyone else in the group looked pleased. Even Nick looked at me with a devious smirk. Nudge bounced on the couch and pointed at Angel.

"You first!" She yelled, and Iggy pushed her over.

"Not so loud, I like when my ears don't bleed!" Nudge huffed and sat up, and Angel scanned the group of us. Her eyes settled on her twin brother, and his eyes seemed to widen in horror.

"Truth or dare, Gazzy." Angel, despite her name and looking like a complete angel, had a devilish little mind. Not to mention she was practically a mastermind, so Gazzy had a right to be scared.

"Uhh...truth." He choked out and Angel rolled her eyes.

"Gaz, i'm not going to start this off with a really horrifying question." He seemed to relax a little, but not much.

"What's the stupidest thing you have ever done?" Angel asked, and Nudge groaned.

"Angel that's a stupid question!" ANgel just leaned forward, her head in her hands, her elbows on her crossed knees. Gazzy looked excited to answer, and shot out his answer almost as fast as Nudge.

"Once I ate four bean burritos before a three hour flight to michigan." I shuttered at the thought of being trapped in a small plane with Gazzy, let alone after he had mexican food. Nudge pretended to gag and Iggy buried his head in his hands, while Gazzy just smiled, looking satisfied with himself. I wrinkled my nose.

"Thats really gross." Gazzy just smiled at me, before Angel chucked a couch cushion at him, hitting him square in the face. Nick looked confused, but didn't ask any questions. I think he got the jist of the problem.

"My turn." Gazzy yelled, and pointed a finger at Iggy. Gazzy pretends to shot Iggy with his finger and Iggy holds a hand to his chest, pulling an overdone expression of horror.

"Oh! The agony!" Iggy cried, and I snickered net to him, holding the back of my hand over my mouth. Nicks eyes flicked back to me, and My smile instantly dropped, and I shrunk back and leaned a little closer to Iggy.

"You have to call Lissa on speakerphone and tell her you love her." Iggy glared at him. Nudge put a hand over her mouth and snickered a little. We all knew how that would end, Lissa would cling onto Iggy like there was no tomorrow and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"Challenge accepted." Iggy told Gazzy, pulling his phone out of his back pocket, But paused, before leaning closer to me.

"Do you have her number?" For a second I panicked, but brushed it off quickly. I yanked out my Iphone, and pointed out her enormous number at the top of the text screen. He nodded and quickly entered it into his phone, putting it on speaker and setting it down on the glass coffee table. It rings a few times before Lissa picks up.

"Hello this Is Lissa!" She hollers into the phone. The sound of loud music and people yelling and talking in the background. Iggy takes a deep breath, before screaming in a girly high pitched voice.

"Oh my god Lissa Fitch! I love you so much!" He screams again. And her nasally scream joins his.

"Like, Wow! I totally love you too whoever you are. Do you go to my school? We could totally be friends, but only if you are hot. But only if you're not friends with this stupid Bitch named Max who me and my friends beat up on. Shes like so ugly and stuff..." She continued, but Iggy hit the end call button, and all the eyes in the room slowly turned to me. I looked down at my hands half covered with my sleeves, not wanting to look at any of them in the eyes. They would probably ignore me too, just like the other kids at school. What was I even thinking? That someone, let alone a bunch of people could accept me, a loser, freak, nerd. I dropped my head as tears welled up in my eyes. I was tired of being all alone, I wanted friends too. I never hurt anyone, I couldn't be so bad.

"Maxie?" Nudges thin arms wrapped around me, and she slid down off the couch to sit next to me. I stiffened, not expecting her to hug me, but then let the tears fall and wrapped my arms around her. Iggy, who was frozen next to me wrapped his long arms around both Nudge and me, turning me into a sad little Max sandwich. Angel and Gazzy came from across the circle and piled onto the hug pile, and Nudge sniffled a little bit.

"Is that true?" Gazzy asked, his blue eyes and blonde cowlick visible over Nudges hair. I just nodded, not wanting to start crying. Nudge sniffled again loudly and her arms tightened around me. My eyes flicked up and past Angel, to land on Nick, who was hunched over and pulling at the sleeve of his leather jacket. His eyes flicked up to ,meet mine for a millisecond before he cast them quickly down again. My brow furrowed, he looked...Guilty?

I shoved all thoughts of him out of my head and snuggled into my friends.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Fang P.O.V

Everyone lay sprawled out on the floor wrapped in blankets, except for me. I stayed up on one of the the couches in Nudges living room. We had ended the game of truth or dare a long time ago, and everyone started to fall asleep. My stomach dropped as soon as Lissa was pulled into the picture, and the phone call was just asking for disaster.

I couldn't say that I didn't feel bad, something in me snapped when her face went from nervous, to shut down. She looked scared, ready to draw off into her own world again. I rolled from my back to my side, one arm under my head. It was uncomfortable sleeping with my leather jacket on, but I couldn't take it off, not in front of these people, who I barely knew.

I squinted into the darkness of the room, looking for Max in between Iggy and Nudge, but her spot in the blankets was flat. Silently, I sat up and pulled my legs to the side of the couch, standing up, careful not to step on Gazzy. I wandered down the hall till I found the bathroom, I juggles the knob, but it was locked.

"Max?" I asked through the door, and I heard a thunk as the back of her head must have hit the door.

"Fuck...owww." She groaned, and I scratched the back of my neck, feeling a little awkward.

"Uhh...are you okay?" I asked, and there was a rustle of fabric on the other side of the door and the lock clicked and The door opened. max looked down at her socks, and tried to push past me to get to the others, but I stopped her. her face was red, like she had been crying.

"Go away, Nick." I didn't budge, I didn't want to bother her, and I definitely didn't want her to cry. Maybe this was my chance to try to patch a few things up.

"Why are you crying?" I asked, and she stood back and her eyes were fixed somewhere off to my left as she bit down on her bottom lip.

"Why do you suddenly care about what I do so much?" She asked, looking uncomfortable.

"Because...because I feel bad for everything I did to you, okay?" I told her, gripping the door frame with one hand, I was nervous, scared of being shot down. Her huge eyes moved to look at mine, and they flicked back at forth between mine, as if looking for something in them. I felt my body grow warm, just by having her eyes on me.

"Apology accepted." She said, and she shoved past me, keeping her head low as she disappeared around the corner back to the family room. I groaned and knotted my own fingers in my hair, pulling hard.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." I mumbled to myself. She was so beautiful, too beautiful for the treatment I gave her. Too beautiful for me, or anyone else. I went into the bathroom and closed the door, locking it and sat down on the white tile, leaning against the door like Max had probably done. I stretched my legs out in front of me, what was she even doing in the bathroom? She should have been asleep its the middle of the night.

I rolled up my jacket sleeves and leaned the back of my head against the door. I itched the scabs that littered my arms as I peered around Nudges bathroom. The cream coloured walls and vintage looking sink and trimmings made me feel out of place. I boosted myself up off the wall and went to the cupboard under the sink, opening it and immediately finding a bottle of lotion. I squeezed a glob of it onto my right arm and rubbed it in with my other wrist, trying to soothe the itch.

I pulled my sleeves back down over my arms, not wanting my scars to show anywhere but at home. I pushed up from where I was sitting on the floor in front of the sink, looking at my hair in the reflection of the mirror and fixing my fringe a little.

Sighing, I opened the door and felt the bathroom and went back to the family room, flopping back down on the couch. I looked down at where Max was supposed to be sleeping, and saw her staring at the ceiling, lying on her back.

"Hi Max." I said, and she closed her eyes for a few seconds, before they opened again and looked straight at me.

"What now Nick." She asked irritably, her eyebrows drawing together. I wanted to smile, because she was so cute.

"Nothing." I mumbled, and turned away from her to lie on my back like Max was. She let out a breath, and silence settled over the room.

"Did I make you cry?" I asked, feeling the question itching at the back of my mind. She sucked in another breath and the sound of blankets shifting as she turned to face me.

"No, not you." I turned to look at her, and her eyes quickly flicked away fro mine when I looked at her. I smiled a little bit in my mind, maybe I could get her to open up a little bit.

"I'm sorry, you know." I told her, and she just snorted at me. Why was it so hard for me to sound genuine to her? I wanted her to be okay, but at the same time I wasn't exactly willing to risk my entire reputation for her. Even if all my friends were all airheads, they were still my friends.

"You're not sorry. And even if you were, why would you be sorry now?" She asked, starting to sound angry. This was probably the most I had ever heard of her voice, and as nice as it was, she was still mad at me. With understandable reason.

I turned back onto my side, catching her eyes, but she didn't look away this time, she held my gaze, but she was still glaring at me.

"I like you Max." I told her, and her glare broke for a second, her eyes widening before narrowing again.

"What?" She asked, unable to hide her curiosity. I just turned away from her, pulling the thick blanket that I was sleeping under back up to my shoulders, thinking of it as a sort of safety net, to keep out my own disappointment. She didn't say she liked me too, or even smile, All I got was a fucking, "What?" I heard her sigh behind me and the rustle of blankets again.

I waited for all the breathing in the room to even out again before I turned to look back over the dim room. Max had snuggled into Iggys side, her face hidden by his chest. I felt a rock settle itself on my stomach, and I looked away from them. She deserved someone like him, with a good track record and who was nice to her. I buried my head under the blanket, I would not be sleeping tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I haven't updated in forever! I've been really busy with friend problems so the last few chapters In all my storys are on hold for a little bit until everything blows over. -Rico**

Chapter 7- Max P.O.V.

"Bye Max!" Angel called me from the back of Iggys truck, and I turned around to smile and wave at her as I walked up the walkway to my house with my heavy duffel bag over my shoulder. I watched as the navy blue truck disappeared down the street before turning and going into the house.

"Mom?" I called out into the silent house, and my mom's head poked out from the kitchen.

"Hi sweetie, did you eat lunch yet?" I put my bag down by the stairs and went into the kitchen, boosting myself up onto the counter.

"No." My mom was stirring a pot of shaped macaroni pastas, her brows furrowed.

"Mom, what's wrong?" I asked, but she quickly changed the subject.

"Good, because I started making this Macaroni..."

"Mom. What's wrong?" I asked again, putting my hand on her arm, and she looked up at me, sighing.

"Your sister didn't come home last night." She said, her lips pressing back into a straight line. I rolled my eyes and went back to watching the pasta.

"Well, neither did I..." I trailed off, and my mom chuckled, pushing my shoulder a little bit.

"Yeah, but I knew where you were. And I called Moniques parents before you went."

"Mom!" I groaned, and she waved a spoon at me.

"I'm your mother, and I'm allowed to be worried about you. The last thing I need is two Mayas out and about." She said with a smile, and lifted the pot off the stove, pouring out the hot water and pasta into the strainer in the sink. I watched as she finished the macaroni the way I liked it, pouring all of it into a bowl and handing it to me.

"We have soda in the fridge, I went shopping last night while you two were out." I nodded and she left, probably to go to the study. I hopped off the counter, going to the fridge and pulling a Dr. Pepper from the box, headed up to my room.

"Maya?" My sister had silently slipped into the house, and was slowly making her way up the stairs. Her head whipped around, her bloodshot eyes fixing stony cold on mine.

"Shutup!" She hissed, but mom was already around the corner with her hands on her hips, looking stern. Maya groaned and rolled her eyes, leaning against the railing and crossing her arms.

"Go upstairs, Max." My mom told me, and I slid past Maya, who watched me with a murderous glare. I ducked my head and went into my room. They were already yelling at eachother, Something about Mayas outfit and her curfew being violated again. I picked up my headphones from my desk, pulling them over my neck and plugging into my Ipod. I shuffled through my music before finding something I like, blasting "A thousand sleepless nights" by Pierce the Veil until I couldn't hear the yelling downstairs.

I pulled my laptop closer to me and pulled up tumblr, not even bothering to go on facebook anymore. I scrolled through my dashboard, not able to hear the yelling downstairs as I racked up the volume. After a little bit, my phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket, an unknown number showing up on the screen. I rolled my neck backwards, looking up at the ceiling. pretty much nobody knew my phone number, because it was one of few things I liked to keep sacred. No one knew my phone number and my tumblr, giving me a little security from the people at school.

**Hey. **

Was all it read. and I frowned at the screen. I quickly typed and sent my response, taking a worried bite of macaroni.

_Who Is this. _

I sent back. And got an almost immediate reply.

**Fang. **

The unknown name on my screen made me panic, and I did the only thing I could think of.

_Sorry, I think you have the wrong number. _

**Oh, Sorry. **

I just stared at my phone for a while, making sure that it wouldn't ring again. How had this guy even gotten my number anyway? It wasn't public information, my sister didn't even have my number in her phone. I groaned and leaned back in the pillows. Why couldn't everyone leave me alone?

I looked in the mirror, I had put on the shirt that Nudge lent to me when I slept over at her house and left my hair out of a beanie, letting it fall in loose waves. She had called me on the house phone, telling me that if I wore it she would make me a cheesecake on friday. Lets be serious, who could say no to homemade cheesecake? I sighed, and hung up the black winter coat over the mirror again, hiding from my own reflection. I sat down on my bed, tying the laces on my new shoes that my mom got for me at the mall last night when she went shopping, black Osiriss with Lime green soles and lettering. I looked down at my feet, satisfied; My mom always picked good shoes for me.

I swung my backpack over my shoulder and went down the stairs. Not bothering to grab breakfast, I went out the front door and started walking to school. I didn't live too far, only five blocks, and It was better to walk that ride in the car with Maya and Mom. I put in my earbuds, and turned up Sleeping with Sirens, Union Mountain High rolling into view as I walked up the last hill. I took a deep breath as I pushed through the black double doors, the school was pretty empty because I was here early. I walked hurriedly to my locker, scanning for any of the popular people, but seeing none, I started undoing my combination with shaking fingers.

"Chemistry first." I mumbled to myself, taking my heavy chemistry book out of my locker and putting it into my backpack. More people began to fill in the hallway, and with trembling fingers I zipped it closed. I turned, but bumped into Lissa. Just my luck, she turned to scowl at me down her nose, her darkly made-up eyes narrowing at the sight of me.

"No sweatshirt today? Should have kept it on." she tapped in her chin, and I kept quiet as Maya, Ella and Brigid gathered next to her.

"By the way Maxie, your sister called me last night, about how you got her grounded for coming home wasted. Like what the hell?!" She yelled, and grabbed a fistfull of my hair and forcing my head up to look at her.

"Say sorry." She hissed in my face, but I just gave her a blank stare. She released my hair and shoved me backwards, the back of my head bouncing off the back of the lockers, in the same spot as last week when Nick pushed me. I felt tears prickle at the back of my eyes, but I forced them away, not wanting to give Lissa the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

I looked up and saw Nick at the edge of the crowd, watching me but not moving with an expressionless face. I begged him with my eyes to help, but he just cast his eyes down and walked away from the crowd of people who had gathered around us.

Lissa looked to where I was looking at Nicks retreating figure. And turned back to me, looking furious.

"Don't look at him you little whore!" She kicked me in the stomach with her pointed heel. The air rushed out of my lungs with a whoosh, my mouth open in shock as she kicked me again, harder. I fell to the side, trying to hold myself up with one arm. Lissa kicked me again, so hard that I felt like I was going to vomit. She kicked me one more time for good measure, and raised her foot again, before she was shoved. I looked up to see Iggy standing over me, looking furious.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" He shouted, and Lissa was steadied by Brigid. She stood back up and took a menacing step towards Iggy, poking him square in the chest.

"She deserved everything she got." She hissed at him, and he grabbed her wrist, his knuckles white.

"No, you deserve what you've given her. You and your friends deserve to be kicked around for what you do to everyone. You think everyone loves you but everybody actually hates you." (**Sorry, I had to quote Mean Girls!)** Iggy ground out, actually scaring me, and I was the one he was defending. He threw her wrist away from him, and made a huge motion of wiping it off the the nearest guys shirt. A few people in the crowd laughed and Lissa fumed. Iggy turned and Offered me his hand, which I gratefully took, and he pulled me up.

"Are you okay?" He asked, tucking some of my hair behind my ear, his grey eyes looking into mine. I bit my trembling lip and nodded, not feeling okay at all inside. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I put my arm around his waist, and he walked with me to chemistry, not saying anything. We sat at the back lab table, and I felt Mayas glare from across the room, and I fiddled with the zipper on my backpack nervously, the pain on my stomach suddenly becoming more noticeable.

Iggy playfully punched me in the bicep.

"I like your hair, I can see it." He told me with a genuine smile, and I gave my best fake smile back. I put my hand on top of his head and tousled his hair.

"I like your hair too." Iggy put one hand over his mouth, looking surprised.

"Omg Max! We both have wavy hair!" He squealed and put his hands on his cheeks, still smiling. I laughed and bent my head down to the other people in the room wouldn't see my smile. The teacher walked in, the class slowly going silent. I looked sideways at Iggy, who was taking down notes with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. I smiled a little bit; sweet, joking Iggy had stood up for me.

The first time anyone had even stood up for me.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Fang P.O.V.

I flopped down in my seat next to Iggy in history.

"You look happy." Iggy Poked me in the arm, and I just sighed. I sat up and looked at Iggy, seeing Lissa out of the corner of my eye watching Lissa sit down a chair away from me, Instead of next to me like she usually did.

"Do you like Max?" I blurted out suddenly, and Iggy scrunched up his eyebrows.

"What? No, she's all alone. She needs a friend." He told me, and I dropped my head back into my arms. It didn't feel like "Just friends" from where I was, watching like a loser from the sidelines.

"What can I do to be her friend, too?" I asked, and Iggy shrugged.

"You can't just force your way into her life. But you can try just being nice to her." He told me, and I just dropped my head back into my arms, the leather of my jacket cool on my forehead. The chair at the seat next to me scraped backwards, and someone dropped their backpack next to them.

"Hi Nick." I sat up straight in my chair, looking over at Maya.

"Why are you in Lissa's spot?" I asked, her, and she pouted and tipped her head slightly to the side.

"Is that a problem? I just wanted to sit by you..." She trailed off and I just shrugged and gave her a little smile. She smiled at me again, and I internally compared her to Max. She had on a hot pink bustier and a pink flowered skirt, her hair stick straight and her face completely done, Kim kardashian contouring and everything. I only knew this because she liked to brag about how good at it she was.

"You look nice today." I told her, and she smiled at me cattily, propping her chin up on the back of her tan hand. I smirked back at her, letting my fringe fall forward to shade my eyes. I don't know why I was flirting with her, I didn't actually like her like that, but It was enough distraction from Max for now.

Iggy folded his arms over his chest next to me, and leaned back in his chair next to me as the teacher walked in. I turned forewords to face the front of the room, feeling a familiar weight settle onto my stomach.

Max P.O.V.

I hurried out of trigonometry, my last class before lunch. I stuffed my backpack into my locker and took my pass from the front pocket of my backpack. I turned, but accidentally bumped into someone.

"Sorry." I muttered and tried to walk around whoever it was, but they grabbed my bicep. My eyes flickered up to meet Nicks, and he smirked down at me.

"Hey Maxie." I let out a breath and just walked around him and wrenched my arm out of his grasp, folding my arms across my stomach and dropping my head down to look at my new shoes as I speed up my pace towards the lunchroom.

"Max!" I walked faster, turning a corner. I heard Nick take a few running steps to catch up to me.

"What do you want." I asked him in a hushed voice that could probably be barely heard by him. He propped one elbow up on my right shoulder.

"Come on Max. We talked at Nudges." I rolled my eyes, entering the lunchroom.

"So what." I ground out, and he huffed and leaned against the wall, looking stoic.

"I just hoped I could fix things." I huffed air out of my mouth, blowing a chunk of my hair away from my face.

"You can't fix things, Nick." He looked agitated and pushed himself up from the wall as the line shifted forewords.

"Well how can I try?" He asked again, coming a tad closer to my face than I felt comfortable with. The muted pain in my stomach turned suddenly, reminding what happened to me when I tried to reach out to him for help.

"Why did you turn away." I asked him, but it came out more as a statement. I grabbed a red tray taking a double cheeseburger and basket of fries.

"Come on..." He started, but I cut him off, taking a container of two-percent.

"No, you saw me, you saw them. You just walked away. Do you know what if feels like to be the center of those kids, having the shit kicked out of you?" He shook his head as I handed a small old woman my pass and offered her a small smile, which she warmly returned.

"Yeah, but Iggy had no problem standing up to her. That's why I don't want anything to do with you or your friends. You don't care about anyone but yourselves." I turned and headed out of the lunchroom, outside to where I usually sat. Angel and Gazzy were already sitting under the tree. Angel turned towards me and waved, and I hurried my pace towards her and Gazzy. Angel patted the grass next to her and I sat down as she unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. Gazzy took a few of my french fries and dipped them in a tiny cup of ketchup on the edge of my tray.

I gave him a playful sharp look and he grinned back at me.

"Nudge is coming, and Iggy had a test." At that moment, Nudge burst out of the black double doors, her long, curly hair flying everywhere.

"How does she run that fast in heels and not tip her tray?" I wondered aloud as she plopped down next to me, not even breathing hard. She brushed her hair back and flashed a brilliant smile at me.

"Wow! You look great! I love your natural hair with that top, you can just keep it because it looks way better on you than on me!" She continued to talk to Angel and Gazzy, and I unwrapped my cheeseburger and stared at it for a second, before taking a bite of it. Iggy walked outside with his tray in one hand and a thick book in the other. He sits between Gazzy and Nudge and immediately digs into his lunch.

"You okay Iggy?" I asked in a hushed voice, and everyone went silent and looked to Iggy, who had then looked up from his food, a tense look on his face, which he quickly erased and replaced with a smile.

"Yeah." He took a bit of his pepperoni pizza and Angel rolled her eyes. I went back to eating my food. Something was obviously bothering Iggy, but I let it slide, I didn't want to bother him.

"Angel, did you see Chars sweater? She had on a polka dot sweater, and a PLAID scarf! Plaid! Ugh, I think I almost keeled over on the spot!" Angel and Nudge continued for a while, and I tuned them out, crawling around the circle so I could sit by Gazzy.

"Did you get the Bengals versus Packer game last night Gaz?" I asked, and his face lit up.

"Yeah. You should come over and watch the game tonight at our house, Max." He asked casually, taking a bite of his pizza. I grinned, happy to be invited to yet another friends house.

"I'd love too Gaz."

The bell rang signaling the end of the day. I leaped out of my chair and snatched up my backpack, walking fast out of the English room. I joined in the crowd of students and walked down to my locker, keeping my head down, but still keeping an eye out for any populars. I made it to my locker, and dumped in my chemistry book. It was friday, and I didn't plan on doing anything school related over the weekend. I grabbed my black windbreaker and zipped up my backpack, putting my earbuds in.

I made my way to the front of the school, where Gazzy said he would wait for me. I scanned the area again, and through the sea of people I saw Maya push a smirking Fang against the lockers and start making out, Lissa standing next to them getting her books, looking a little green. I felt my stomach churn a little bit at the sight of Nick kissing my sister.

He told me he liked me at Nudges sleepover, I knew he had been lying, but I still hurt. Did I hope that he had meant it? No, he was a player, he never stayed with people for long, and why would he want someone as pathetic as me anyway. I looked forward again, blending back into the sea of students. I spotted Gazzy's spiky blonde hair as he leaned against the brick wall by the black double doors.

He spotted me and started moving towards me, looping his arm around my neck.

"Iggys outside. My mommy is making us tacos!" He mock squealed, sounding like Nudge. I laughed and wrapped my right arm around his waist, pulling out one of my earbuds. Gazzy was two years younger than me, but was still several inches taller than me. People watched us as we pushed through the doors and walked into the parking lot where Iggy was sitting on top of the cab of his car.

I waved, and Iggy bounced while sitting down on top of the car and waved back at me. Gazzy released me and ran towards the car, throwing his backpack into the flatbed and got in the backseat of the old pickup.

"Hi Maxie-waxie!" Iggy shouted as I neared the truck. I hurled my backpack into the flatbed next to Gazzy's.

"Call me that and I will shoot you." I threatened, making a gun with my hand and pretending to shoot him. Iggy cried out and clutched his chest, pretending to die. I chuckled at his antics and got in the front, Iggy climbing down from the top of the truck and getting into the drivers side and firing the ignition. The radio started up soon after, Bring Me the Horizon playing softly throughout the truck. Iggy backed out of his parking spot and we started to drive out of the parking lot. We pulled up to an intersection, and to my horror, Nick pulled up next to us.

In the passenger seat of his black 2012 range rover was my sister, with her hand placed on the inside of Nicks thigh. She was laughing at something he must have said, before seeing me watching her, the smile fading from her face, to be replaced with a scowl. Without thinking, I stuck up my middle finger at her as Iggy pulled forward and out of the intersection. I lowered my hand, and looked over at Iggy, who was grinning his stupid lopsided grin.

"You tell her Max." I smiled back at him, and Gazzy grabbed my shoulders behind me and shook them a little bit.

"You have an inner badass, Huh." Gazzy stated, and I turned around to face him, nodding my head seriously. Nicks range rover followed up for a while before we turned off the road to the right and started going down a long, open country road. I looked around, watching as fenceposts and cows went by.

Iggy turned up the volume as we went through a short tunnel and turned off the road onto a gravel driveway. Iggys old truck climbed a hill, and a farm appeared when we reached the crest of the hill.

"Its a little blank right now. The horses come next week." Iggy told me, and I turned to Him wide eyed.

"You guys have horses?" I asked with wide eyes. Despite my mom owning a veterinary clinic and loving animals, we never had any pets. I had a kitten when I was little, that grew into a cat. The only problem with it was that it hated Maya, and when my dad left he took the cat with him.

"Well, Angel does. She loves animals, collects them, almost." I leaned back in my seat. I had never been near a horse before, and my new friends had them. I bounced in my seat, excited at the prospect.

"Will you let me see them when they come?" I asked, trying to give Iggy puppy dog eyes as he pulled up next to a big wood barn.

"Don't do that face. And yes, I'll definitely let you know." I gave Iggy a soft glare, and he just grinned back at me. His eyes flickered towards the back seat for a second, and he smiled again. I turned in my chair to see Gazzy sprawled out over the three seats, his head resting on the left window.

"Gazzy fell asleep. Should we jump on the roof?" He asked, and I bit my lip, not wanting to make Gazzy mad.

"Hey, He won't be mad." I started to smile.

"For long." I frowned again, and Iggy laughed, and I just rolled my eyes.

"Come on, I'll boost you up." I tried to push down a smile, but the corners of my mouth curved up and Iggys grin stretched across his face again. I pushed open the door and climbed onto the hood of the car and onto the roof , right above where Gazzy was sleeping. Iggy looked up at my from where he was standing with his hands against the window. I crouched down and nodded at Iggy, who counted down.

"One...Two...Three!" He whispered, and I screamed bloody murder and banged the heels of my hands of the roof of the truck. Iggy pounded on the glass and screeched like a little girl. I heard a yelp from inside the truck and a muted thump on the roof, followed by hysterical laughter.

"Fucks sake..." Gazzy groaned as I slid off the roof of the truck. I peeked into the window to see him rolled up like a bug, holding his forehead.

"He jumped so high he hit his head on the top of the truck." Iggy told me, a big, dumb grin plastered over his face. I spurted a laugh, and leaned on the side of the dark blue truck.

"Shut up Iggy." Gazzy groaned from inside the truck. I gave a mischievous smile to Iggy and opened Gazzy's door, taking him by the shoulder and tugging him forward.

"Come on, drama queen. We're gonna throw a pre-game party. It'll be great! Well, better than rolling around in the back of Iggys truck." Iggy snickered behind me.

"Shut Up Iggy." I said sweetly, and Gazzy climbed out of the car. Gazzy slammed the door shut, and dramatically swept towards the house. It was sort of a cross between a cabin and one of those white modern houses, which sounds weird but from the outside, it looked really cool. Iggy came up from behind me, lazily draping his arm over my shoulders.

"I think my mom is home. She makes awesome mexican food, even though my whole family is irish." He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, and I chuckled. We went through the door, which Gazzy had left open in his dramatic exit. I looked around, while carefully taking off my red vans and kicking them next to each other against the wall. The inside was as cool as the outside, with hardwood flooring and modern finishings. I followed Iggy through the house, to what I assumed was the family room. It was two floors high, with a stone fireplace rising up through the center of the room, a t.v. and a moose head with huge antlers hanging above it.

"Who's this, Iggy?" a tall woman with natural red hair tied in a french twist, no makeup, khakis, a plaid shirt and cowboy boots walked into the room. She almost looked like part of the house, the earthy coloring of her clothes and hair matching her surroundings.

"This is Max." I tried out a small smile and Iggys mom beamed at me, the tall heels of her embroidered boots clicking on the hardwood floor.

"I'm Mrs. Griffiths, but you can call me miss Lilly." She told me, wrapping her arms around me. I awkwardly hugged her back and hoped that my hair still looked okay. She pulled away from me, and hurried back into the kitchen. Iggy smiled at me, taking my hand and tugged on my arm.

"We have a t.v. in the basement." He told me, dropping my hand and going down a set of stairs to what I assumed was their basement.

The basement at my house had exercise equipment and a concrete floor and walls, save for one wall that was all mirrors. Iggy and Gazzy basement, however, had bean bags, dark brown carpeting, and cream colored couches. Since the house was built on a hill, the east wall was all french doors looking out over the flat, greenish brown valley with the dark grey mountains in the horizon. The coolest part, however, was what looked like a real, dapple grey horse standing in the corner.

"Iggy, is that real?" I asked, walking up to it. the horse had an old western saddle and matching bridle with silver trimmings on, its mane cut in a straight line down the arch of its neck. Iggy flopped down in a beanbag next to Gazzy.

"Well, at one point. She was my dads first horse, Misty. She was thirty four when she died, when he was twelve. His dad did taxidermy, and stuffed her. My mom thought it was weird, but my dad insisted on keeping the thing." I snorted.

"They got a pet stuffed? That sounds like a weird T.V. show." I ran my left hand down the grey horses neck, but it just felt like wood underneath my hand.

"Yeah, Angel thinks its pretty cool. She liked to sit on it when she was little." I sat down in a dark green beanbag in front of the couch by Gazzy's legs. I scooted my beanbag over a little bit and leaned against Gazzys knees. Iggy turned on the T.V. until he found the channel where the game was starting. We watched in comfortable silence for a while, and Gazzys knees jostled my back every time a good play was made. I grinned as he jumped again, and their mom came down the stairs carrying a tray.

She put it down in front of me, and I leaned forward. She just smiled at me and went back up the stairs. I examined the contents of the tray, snickerdoodles, fruit, cooked ham pieces, a bowl of chips, and a few cans of sprite. I snatched up a cookie and stuffed it in my mouth, chewing thoughtfully. It was almost as good as my moms, but not quite. I swallowed and took another one, Gazzy moving from the couch to sit next to me, Iggy turning the volume down and taking a few slices of oranges.

"Slow down, Max. It wouldn't be very fun if I had to give you C.P.R. your first time here." Iggy winked at me and I whacked him on the bicep, my jaw hanging open.

"You piglet!" I screeched, and Iggy smiled and raised his arm as I raised my arm to whack him again.

"Hey! I was kidding!" I grinned again and ate another cookie while Gazzy dug into the bowl of Doritos. I took another cookie and leaned back in the beanbag, and continued to watch the game with two of my best friends.


	9. Chapter 9

Fang P.O.V. chapter 9

Maya rummaged through the mini fridge next the T.V. in my room, her short skirt not even close to covering her butt as she rummaged for whatever she was looking for. I rolled my eyes and continued to flip through the channels, finally finding Top Gear U.K. and settling back in the black couch. Maya turned around with a bottled water in her hand, and a pepsi in the other.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, and she just shook her head a little too frivolously. I knew that all she had been eating for lunch for the past week was a fruit cup, she had to be hungry. I shrugged and turned back to the T.V. to watch the first half of the show, but apparently Maya wasn't having it. She whined and tucked her hair behind her ear, dropping her chin and looking up through her eyelashes at me. My breath caught in my throat for a second, because if her eyes were a tiny bit wider, she would have been giving me the same look Max always pulls whenever I would talk to her.

"Do you know why I asked to come over Nick?" She asked with fake innocence, and crawled over my lap, sitting down on my thighs. I didn't respond, but just watched her with one eyebrow cocked.

"I don't think I like you and Lissa." She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. I smirked, knowing the game she was playing, and I guiltily played back.

"Why's that?" I asked back, to be honest, I didn't really like Maya all that much. Not because she was a huge bitch, but because I didn't actually know who she was. Behind all the makeup and clothes she had a pretty grim personality.

"Because I'm way cooler than her." Maya whispered again, and I smiled back.

"Okay." I said simply and went back to my show and she huffed and got off me, Leaning back on the couch and looking at the T.V. before whipping her head back to look at me with an incredulous look on her face.

"Okay Nick, what's with you?" I looked at her for half a second before looking back at the T.V. where James was introducing the new Fiat Panda. I took a sip of my pepsi and gave her a confused look. Something was with me? I was being pretty normal as I recal.

"You never officially date anybody, you don't seem to care about anybody, and you don't like ME!" My eyebrows drew together. Sure, Maya was pretty, but something was off about her. She never ate much, wasn't really nice to anybody unless she wanted something from you, and cared more about her cuticles than her own sister.

"I don't care about anybody?" I asked her incredulously, and her eyes widened a fraction of an inch. I stood up from the couch, to look down at her. Her eyes narrowed again, and she tossed her long hair over her shoulder, playing tough guy.

"What about your sister that you just let your friends beat up? And I'm the one who doesn't care about anybody." I turned and grabbed my car keys from where I threw them on my bed, and went for the door.

"Where are you going?" Maya got up from the couch and went after me, wrapping her fingers around my shoulder.

"You don't care, remember?" I told her, trying hard not to spit out the words. I turned to glare at her again, but she put her hand on the side of my face and pushed her lips to mine. I froze in place, before putting my hands on her shoulders and detaching her from me. I just shook my head, and left.

Sure, I was probably being cruel, leading her on the way I did. I went down the hall and down the stairs and out the front door. I unlocked my car and got in, firing up the ignition. I pulled away from the curb, knowing exactly where I was going.

Not even bothering to lock my car, I walked up to the front door of the red brick house and knocked. I waited a few seconds, before realizing what a bad idea this was.

Max's mom opened the door and gave me a kind smile.

"Oh, hello Nick. Maya went to a friends house." I gave her a rare smile and shook my head.

"No, I'm looking for Max." She gave me a knowing smile and let me in.

"She went to the Griffiths house, but I'm sure she will be back in a little bit."

"Thank you." I said, and she left me and went back to the study. Feeling out of place, I went up the stairs and past Maya's room. At the end of the hall and to the left, I pushed past the white door and into Max's room. Did this make me a certified creeper? Yeah, probably.

She had a white desk pushed into the right corner, an Asus computer and tower underneath the desk humming quietly, piles of books and brown soft cover journals covering the back of the desk. The wall straight in front of me had a wide white bookshelf, filled with thick books and memoirs with wide windows that took up the rest of the wall and looked out over their backyard. A jar of sand, a few shells, picture frames with who I assumed were young Maya and Max and a few other people also sat on the bookshelf. Tucked underneath one of the shelves was a woven basket filled with nothing but hats and beanies, one grey one I pulled out and kept in my hand. A small hallway was beyond that, with a white curtain that I assumed blocked off her bathroom, and her bed sat on a low, white frame. She had a blue and purple tie-dye duvet cover and a blend of matching pillows, black and white posters of bands I didn't know hung up above the bed.

I sat down on her perfectly made bed, trying to pull pieces of the girl who hid everything about her, from her room. I looked down at the beanie in my hand, holding it up to my nose and taking a deep breath of it. It smelled faintly of Jasmine, not the perfumy type, but the actual flower.

Oh god, I was a creep. Smelling her hats just took it to a whole new level. I dropped the grey hat in the basket before turning to poke around her room a little more. I slid into her desk chair, swiveling around the mouse to her computer, taking note of her professional typing keyboard, the kind that you didn't need to push the keys down all the way. No documents were open, and the steam icon (a p.c. gaming engine) in the lower left hand corner caught my eye. Max was a gamer? Too cool.

I double clicked on the icon, and her steam popped up, Skyrim showing as the last game she had played. She had a little over three hundred hours logged, and my eyes widened slightly. I continued to scroll, Starcraft, Battlefield, Silent hill, Dead Space two and three, World of Warcraft, Black Mesa, all the Assassin's creed games, Forza, Fifa, and Madden?

I felt my lips twitch up into a small smile subconsciously. Max was seriously an unreal girl. I shook my head, trying to loosen the increasingly fanboyish thoughts about her. I exited out of her computer and stuffed my hands in my pocket, toying with my keys and making my way out of her room. I paused in the threshold, before turning back and snatching the grey hat back from the basket. I walked quickly out of the house before Their mom could see me and jumped into my car, tossing the hat onto the seat next to me.

"Fang, You little creep." I hit the heel of my hand on my forehead, before firing up the ignition and driving home.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9-Max P.O.V.

"Mom! I'm home." I shouted into the house while I took off my shoes and tossed them into the shoe closet. I went into the dining room, where my mom and sister were sitting at opposite sides of the table, a thick silence over the room. I pulled out my normal chair and sat down, my mom offering me a kind smile.

"Did you eat, Max?" She asked, and I nodded, venturing to look over at Maya. She had already been watching me with cold eyes, and I quickly looked away from her. I felt a weight settle itself over my diaphragm. Whenever Maya was angry at me, she very rarely let it go.

"How was the game?" My mom asked, trying to ease some of the harsh silence radiating from Maya. I smiled and sat up in my chair, trying to be happy for my mom.

"Good. Packers won and Gazzy's mom made tacos. They have a stuffed horse in their basement." My mom spurted a laugh and took a bite of her salad.

"Like a stuffed animal?" She asked, and I shook my head.

"Like, a taxidermy horse." Her eyes bugged open.

"Oh my. That sounds like a strange reality show." I grinned.

"Thats exactly what I said." My mom finished chewing the last of her salad and pointed her fork at me.

"I was just telling Maya, Nicholas came by asking for you." I froze in my chair, if Maya told Lissa that he was affiliating with me again she would come after me.

"Did he say what he wanted?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly as I felt Mayas glare dig into the side of my head a little harder.

"No, just asked if you were here. I didn't know when you would be back so I just let him in. I don't know how long he stayed but he must have snuck out before I heard him. Quiet as a mouse the whole time." I just blinked. What could he possible want from me? Did he plant bombs or something creepy in my room? No one ever goes in my room, not even my mom because I keep it clean.

"I think he likes you, Maxie." My mom winked at me, and I tried to force away a dark red blush. Maya leaped to her feet and stabbed her fork into the dark wood of the table, so hard that the fork stuck straight up, wedged in the hard wood. She shoved her chair backwards and turned to stomp up the stairs.

"Maya Alana Martinez! You come down here now!" My mom shouted, getting up from her chair and sending a sympathetic look. I sighed and waited for my sister to come back down the stairs, looking scary calm. I got out of my chair and sprinted past Maya and my mom and up to my room. At the end of the hall, I went in my room and slammed the door closed and leaned against it, swiping my headphones off my desk and plugging them into my phone in my back pocket, scrolling through my albums, before choosing Marianas Trench by August Burns Red and turning up the volume high so I couldn't hear my mom shouting at Maya.

I looked around my room, seeing my chair out from under my desk and a butt-print on my bed from where Nick must have sat. I pushed in the chair and went to sit on my bed, pulling my laptop out from under my bed. I got on my hands and knees and peeked under my bed, nothing out of place. I let out a breath of relief and pulled myself back up on my bed. I took a few deep breaths, it looked like Nick just wandered around before leaving. I went and sat in my swiveling computer chair and unplugged my headphones from my phone and into the sound system attached to my computer. I pulled up my steam and turned up the fan on my tower, before turning on skyrim.

I needed a little video game sur-reality right now.

I stood in front of my closet, arms crossed, unsatisfied with my clothes.

"I wish Nudge could help pick me an outfit." I mumbled to myself, before choosing a black hoodie with a white diamond painted on the front and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. I took off my pajamas, shivering in the cold while pulling on the clothes. I pulled a black belt with silver studs through my jeans loops and adjusted the hood on my sweatshirt. It was getting colder as November started to end, and I for one was ready for coats and wool socks. I pulled a brush through my wavy hair, and took a white, knit beanie from my hat basket and pulled it over the top of my head, so a tiny bit of my hair showed in the front.

I sighed, and pulled my backpack over my shoulders and ran downstairs, hoping I wouldn't have to face Maya. I grabbed a granola bar and walked out the front door, quietly closing the door and starting my walk to school. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, listening to the world around me. Two blocks away from school, I pulled out my phone and checked the time.

Seven, and school started at eight thirty, I groaned, I should have walked slower. I walked up the last hill and the school came into view, dread pooling in my stomach. I crossed the street and the lawn in front of the building, and pushed past the front doors into the warm school.

I walked past the early kids to my locker, undoing my lock and grabbing my history notebook. I zipped up my backpack and went to find a bench outside. I left the building, hoping that if I stayed outside Lissa and her friends wouldn't be able to find me. I laid back on the bench, looking up at the sky and closing my eyes and soaking up the chilly sunshine.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I lift it to see I have ten minutes until my first class starts. I sit up and scoop up my backpack and go inside. The school is now buzzing with people, and I blend with the other people as I make my way to my first class. I can see the door around a corner, when someone taps my shoulder. I carefully turn, but someone punches me in the face, my head whipping to the side as I hiss in a breath and stumble back.

Oohs rise from the crowd of people in the hallway, and I look up, expecting to see Lissa but instead coming face to face with my own sister, a snarl on her face. My blood boiled, Maya never hit me, just her friends.

"Watch it Maya." I ground out, and she just smiled sweetly at me, knowing I wouldn't do anything.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was aiming for a different whore." She said nonchalantly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. I ground my jaw, and raised my arm, and slugged her back across the face. Hard. Everything in the hall went silent. I never fought back, and no one ever messed with Maya, much less punch her.

She stumbled back clumsily in her heels, her hand holding her jaw where I punched her. She looked back up at me, a murderous glare on her face. I felt adrenaline pour into my veins as the people in the hallway began to close in around us to create a perfect circle caging us in. This is usually where most people would roll up their sleeves and start throwing insults, but I let Maya's friends do that for me.

"Teach her!"

"Put her back where she belongs Maya!"

"Kill her!"

"Fuck up the whore!"

"Break her! Fuck her up!" I heard from the crowd, and Maya smirked at me, and my face went impassive, feeling the weight of the people around me, but this was different from all the other times I had been beat up.

This was my sister beating me and this was my school telling her to kill me. Needless to say, I was furious. Maya screamed and rushed me, swiping at my head with an open hand. I ducked, and swiped her feet out from under her, and she landed with a sickening splat on her stomach, her legs in the air like a scorpion. How oddly fitting.

People in the crowd oohed, and I cracked my knuckles, feeling immense power. Maya scrambled up, looking a little disheveled but furious. She rushed me again, but her wind up was too predictable and I blocked her fist with my left forearm and punched her hard in the stomach, the air rushing out of her lungs with a whoosh and she doubled over, and I undercut her in the face so she reeled back, gasping for breath.

Maya became a flurry, grabbing a handful of my hair and flailing her fist on the back of my head. I retaliated, kneeing her hard between the legs, and her knees buckled under her and I tried to shove her away from me, but her hold on my hair only tightened and we both fell on the ground. She scrambled up as I struggled to get up from my knees, And landed a hard kick to my cheekbone with the heel of her shoe. My head whipped to the side so hard that I fell on my side.

The crowd was roaring by now, all sound washed away by their shouts. She kicked my in the face again, catching me in the mouth, my lip splitting. She wound up to kick me again, but I rolled away, her foot barely grazing my face. Somehow, I gracefully got back up on my feet and launched myself at Maya so fast that she didn't have time to react, punching her square in the face so hard she flew backwards into the crowd and I had to take a few steps because I swung through the punch so hard. The crowd pushed her back, tears and her usually perfect makeup running down her face, her nose now bleeding, but her glare was still as cold as ever.

"You think beating me up will justify you?" She asked, an evil smile stretched over her features. The crowd was still roaring, but somehow I could still hear her.

"You will still be the same tomorrow and the day after that. People will still hate you, because there is nothing about you to love, Useless." She took steady steps towards me, My fists clenching and unclenching by my sides.

"You are nothing!" She screamed, and I let out a strangled roar, my insides feeling like they were on fire. In a rage, I leaped on Maya like a panther, knocking her back to hard she fell back , hitting that back of her head on the ground so hard the crowd squirmed. I punched her hard repeatedly in the face, her nose releasing a new wave of blood. She clawed at my arms, but I was lost, teeth barred, and girls in the crowd screaming.

I was totally rabid, landing punch after perfect, destructive punch on Mayas perfect face.

"Max!" I felt strong arms go around my waist and yank me hard, up and away from Maya.

"Let me go! I'll kill her! I'LL KILL YOU!" I shrieked, and teachers broke up the crowd of students and Lissa, Brigid and Ella helped a now bleeding and sobbing Maya up off the ground. I writhed, shrieking like a banshee in the grip of whoever was holding me up off the ground, kicking at their knees hard with my heels and pulling at their fingers. I wanted to hit Maya hard again. I wanted her to be so scared of me that she would never touch me or look at me again. Whoever was holding me up off the ground lowered me so my feet touched the ground, and I tried to bolt, but they held me back. Turning me in their arms, and stroking my hair.

"Shh, Max. Its okay." Nick, Nick was the one who had pulled me off my sister, Nick who was hugging me. I stopped struggling, and his arms tightened around me, And I buried my face in his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his waist and holding onto him like a lifeline.

"Are you okay?" He asked again, softly, and I nodded, but let out a strangled cry into his shoulder, tears falling and my body shaking uncontrollably. I clung onto him tighter, and his arms moved higher on my back to hold me more securely.

"Hey, Its okay. You're okay." I let down my walls and started sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder, his one hand stroking my hair and his other one hugging me. I had never been this close to Nick, never smelled him, and here I was, a bloody mess, letting the waterworks run rampant and hugging him. He gently released me, but I still hung onto him as he scooped me up bridal style, my arms going around his neck and burying my face into the crook between his neck and shoulder, the leather of his jacket cool on my cheek.

"Max! Oh my god! Is she okay!" I head a pair of footsteps run up to Nick, but I just kept on crying and holding on to him. It was Iggy and Nudge, Nudges voice asking a million questions a second as Nick walked me to the nurse. His chest rumbled as he tried to keep up with her questions, and my crying slowly subsided, but I didn't loosen my hold on him or open my eyes.

Nick turned me sideways to step into the nurses office, and I heard her forced pleasant voice.

"Ah, The other Martinez sister." The nurse and I were friends, I guess you could say. When I knew I was in trouble with Lissa, I would fake sick, and even though the nurse knew I was fine she would let me go home. Nick sat me down on the couch, but I leaned into his side, not wanting him to leave me alone. I knew I was going to get it for what I did to Maya, I was going to pay. I few stray tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes, and I left two other weights settle down on the couch. Nick drew an arm over my shoulder and pulled me into him, his thumb tracing tiny circles into my shoulder.

I peeked up through my hair, to see Maya holding an ice pack to the back of her head, her whole body turned in her chair so that she was angled directly at me, her face a mess, but her eyes watched me like a falcon, piercing and cold. She had one eye swollen shut, her nose and lip bleeding, a large purple bruise stretching from her fight cheek over the bridge of her nose, her makeup smudged and running. I dropped my gaze, and closed my eyes, wanting it all to go away. The nurse tipped my chin up, and Nick pulled away from me, and I immediately missed his comfort. She dabbed with a wet cloth under my eyes and around my split lip, examining my split pointer and middle finger knuckles, her lips pursed, but old eyes sad.

"You are the last one I expected to get in a fight, Miss Max." She told me quietly, and I cast me eyes downward again. She was right, I was more a flight person, really.

"You don't look so bad. You can go." She told me softly, and Nick stood, offering me a hand, which I took and let him pull me up from the couch and wrap his arm around my shoulders again, Nudge and Iggy standing up too and followed up out of the nurses office.

"Are you okay, Max?" Nudge asked, looking genuinely flustered. Just like a mother hen, I thought. It was the best I could do to just nod, and she hugged me hard.

"I'm going to take her home." Nick said firmly behind me, and Iggy just nodded next to Nudge, looking worried. Nick took my hand, tugging on my arm a little, and I followed him towards the front of the school, the hallways now empty. I rushed away a few stray tears that were meandering down my face, and Nick just squeezed my hand and offered a small, unsure smile too me. I returned it shyly, and followed him out to his car.

If he was supposed to be my enemy, why did it feel so right when he held me in the middle of all those people? Why did I feel so safe now?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Fang P.O.V.

I locked my car and walked into school, finding the halls to be totally empty.

Strange, I thought to myself. There was ten minutes until class started, people were usually everywhere. I walked towards my locker, and a muted roar sounded from the end of the hallway. I shoved my backpack into my locker and speed walked towards the noise, which grew in volume as I turned a corner, pretty much the entire student body had formed a mosh pit around whoever was inside. I spotted Dylan at the edge of the crowd looking bored and went up to him.

"Do you know who it is?" I shouted over the noise, feeling a little nervous, I was never really one for fights. Dylan looked up, his eyes now excited, matching the energy of the air with the crowd.

"Dude, Maya punched her sister! She's getting whooped!" He shouted, tucking his phone into his pocket. My eyes flew open. Max was fighting Maya? Nobody ever messed with Maya because she never lost a fight, and quiet Max hardly stood a chance. I began to shove through the crowd, seeing Maya kick Max in the side of the face, and kick her again before Max rolled away and leaped back up on her feet and swing hard through Mayas nose, sending her back into the crowd, who pushed her back. I pushed people out of my way, Just to hear a shriek and Max leap towards Maya, slamming her into the ground headfirst and start landing hard, steady punches on her sisters face while Maya tried to push her off. I burst through the crowd as Mayas head whipped to the side and send out a spray of blood. I wrapped my arms around Maxs waist and yank her hard away from Maya.

Teachers began to yell and direct yammering students away from the scene. Max struggled to get away from me, kicking her heels against my knees and pulling at my fingers.

"Let me go! I'll kill her! I'LL KILL YOU!" Max leaned forward and screamed at Maya, who was now sobbing hysterically as Lissa, Brigid and Ella helped her up off the ground. Gently, I let her put her feet on the ground, but she tried to rip away from my arms, but I just tightened my hold on her, but holding onto a livid Max was like holding onto half frozen jello.

I turned her in my arms, and crushed her to my chest, stroking her golden blonde hair with my left hand.

"Shh, Max. Its okay." She seemed to stiffen, before wrapping her arms back around me, almost seeming to melt into my body, and I had to hold back a shiver. She buried her face into my shoulder, still holding strong, but her hands on my back were trembling.

"Are you okay?" I asked, trying to be gentle, and she nodded into my shoulder and let out a strangled cry, her whole body starting to tremble as her arms tightened around me. I looked up from under my hair, my eyes locking onto Mayas, who was watching us with a stony glare. I glared back, and hers faltered as her friends had to hold her back as she tried to walk towards me. She watched over her shoulder as she walked away towards the nurses office, as I moved my arms higher on Max's back to hold her closer.

"Hey, Its okay. You're okay." I murmured to her softly again, and she broke down, crying softly into my shoulder, I took in a deep inhale of the scent of her hair, and released her, but her arms remained locked around my waist. I scooped her up bridal style, like I had seen in all the corny romance movies, and her arms moved to wrap round my Neck, her face buried in the crook between my neck and shoulder. Nudge sprinted up to me, looking horrified with Iggy hot on Nudges tail.

"Max! Oh my god! Is she okay!" Nudge asked loudly, and Max just continued to cry into my shoulder as I started to the nurses office.

"What happened? We were late and I just heard the news from Ella who texted me and Julia said that Max totally kicked butt and like nobody expected that because Max usually doesn't even stand up for herself! And that Maya, ugh I think I just might put Nair in her deep conditioner if I ever go to Max's house so she would be bald! That would be so embarrassing..." She rambled on the whole way to the nurse's office, and I chose to just tune her out. I turned sideways and stepped into the office, seeing Maya sitting alone in a chair off to the side, looking up at me as I sat down on the couch, still holding Max.

I ripped my eyes away from her, and focused on unwrapping Max's arms from my neck and sitting her next to me on the ugly, orange couch. She was quiet now, her crying subsided and she slumped back into my chest again, and I wrapped my arm back over her shoulders, Maya stiffening out of the corner of my eye.

"Ahh, The other Martinez sister." The nurse said, trying to sound positive as she stood up from where Maya was sitting, her whole body turned towards me. The nurse kneeled in front of Max, and I drew away from her, Instantly missing the warm buzz I got just from touching her. The nurse wiped around Maxs face and her bleeding lip.

Maya caught my eye again, and she motioned towards Max with an venomous look on her face. I folded my arms over my chest and leaned back on the couch, refusing to give her any answers. She wanted to know if I was with Max, which I wasn't, but I no doubt wanted to be.

But, no matter how mean Maya was, I couldn't help but feel bad for her. She was all alone in the nurses office after losing a fight she had started. Her friends didn't stick with her, while lonely Max came with two friends, and...I wasn't sure what she considered me. That, and she had her right eye swollen shut, a nasty split lip, and her nose was slightly crooked and a nasty bruise beginning to bloom over her face.

"You don't look so bad. You can go." The nurse told Max, who sniffed a little, And I stood quickly, using this situation to my advantage to show Max that I was actually a pretty nice guy. To my surprise, she took it and stood next to me, wrapping her right arm around my waist, and I responded by wrapping my left arm over her arm. I felt my stomach sink a little, she was practically clinging onto me, begging for comfort. And I had absolutely no resentment to giving it to her.

"Are you okay, Max?" Nudge asked, once outside the nurses office, her usually bright eyes worried. Max didn't say anything, but just nodded, and Nudge bear hugged Max hard, and she returned the hug solemnly. Iggy gave me a purposeful look, and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and I felt my face start to burn. But he was right, this was my chance to try and make up for how big of an asshole I was too her.

"I'm going to take her home." I told Nudge and Iggy, and took her hand in mine, tugging on her arm a little, and she followed me like a zombie out past the office without checking out and led her out to my car in the parking lot. She wiped furiously at the tears still flowing freely from her eyes, and I squeezed her hand to get her attention, and gave her a smile, which to my delight she returned shyly, but her eyes didn't smile, they were dead.

I unlocked my car, and opened the passenger door for her, and she warily climbed in, letting me close the door for her. I walked around to the other side of the car, getting in and firing up the smooth ignition. I looked over at Max, who had her head leaned up against the window with her eyes closed, tears still leaking from her eyes down her blotchy cheeks.

I backed out of my parking spot, and drove out of the driveway. I sat my phone in a cup holder, and plugged it into my car sound system, thoughtfully scrolling through my music until I found something...fitting.

I chose "Have faith in me" by A Day To Remember, and Max opened her eyes and shot me an incredulous look out of the corner of my eye, before she sighed and slumped back against the window. Instead of turning left to go towards Maxs house, I went straight, driving her towards my house. Her breathing evened out, her usually tense shoulders relaxing visibly and her tears stopping. Either she was a great actress, or she was really emotionally exhausted.

I pulled into my driveway, cutting the engine, satisfied to not see my parents cars in the driveway. Max wasn't like any of the other girls I had brought home, she was for one quiet, preferred souvenir sweatshirts, and never wore makeup. Max didn't stir as I got out of the car and walked around to her side, carefully opening her door and slipping my arm under her shoulders so her limp body wouldn't fall out of the car. She shook and woke up instantly, her eyes groggy and she cringed and rubbed her eyes.

"Nick?" She groaned as I scooped her up and carried her towards the front door, kicking the passenger side car door close. My parents were both lawyers, allowing us to live in an unnecessarily huge house in one of those neighborhoods complete with a tennis club and bratty kids with iphones.

"Yeah?" She looked around, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Where are me?" She asked, squirming out of my arms to stand with her hands stuffed in her sweatshirt pocket, but holding icy eye contact. I unlocked the front door, and looked back at Max.

"My house, babes." I told her, suddenly regretting the cocky smirk in my voice, and watched as her eyes went hollow again.

"Sorry." I mumbled, opening the door and walking inside, kicking off my shoes and dumping my backpack off in the small hallway. My dog, Total, trotted up to me in the hallway, his short, black tail wagging.

"Hi buddy." I whispered to the small dog, patting his side. My parents had gotten me Total for my sixth birthday a long time ago, to keep me company while they went on nice vacations and business trips without me. The little black scottie was getting a little old now, and had a few grey hairs growing around his snout, and hadn't had a haircut in a while so he was really scruffy, but I loved him, as cheesy as that sounds.

As soon as Max had her shoes off, she spotted Total and slid down on the floor, cross legged and patting the ground in front of her, her previously cold eyes warming a little bit as Total turned to look at her and waddled over to visit. Most of the friends and girls I brought home didn't care to look at my little dog, or whined about how his hair would get all over their clothes. Max scooped up Total, looking up at me from where she was sitting on the floor, rubbing behind a delighted Totals ears.

"You hungry?" I asked, awkwardly, fiddling with the sleeves of my leather jacket. She nodded, struggling to her feet with Total still secure in her arms. She follows me into the kitchen, looking around with wide eyes. My house was modern and cold feeling, all tile, metal, and glass, no decorations or pictures of the people who lived here, and the only carpeting in the whole house in my room.

"You're house is cool." She told me, taking a seat at a tall barstool at the center island, with Total sitting on her lap with his paws on the countertop. I nodded and went to the fridge, grabbing cheese and tortillas.

"Its pretty empty though. Do you like chicken?" I asked her, and she nodded vigorously. I put a pan on the stove, starting to get quesadillas ready.

"So...why are we here? You're going to miss school." She asked, her brows furrowing, and I noted how cute she looked when she did that. I shuffled around a little bit, focusing of buttering the tortillas.

"Just wasn't thinking about it I guess." I mumbled, and her forehead smoothed out, and she went back to rubbing Totals ears. As the Tortillas sizzled in the pan, Max looked back up at me, her eyes blank.

"Aren't you going to interrogate me about what happened?" She asked, and I looked up at her, her face looking a little malicious, an expression I wasn't used to seeing on her. I sprinkled cheese and pieces of white chicken on the tortillas and folded them into halves and flipped them when the cheese melted.

"Not unless you want to tell." I said carefully, not wanting to upset her. With a pang, I realized how I had changed, I used to try and upset her just so that she would show a little emotion, now I was afraid of it. She sighed and leaned back in the chair, Total trying to climb on the counter to get at the food, but max held him back.

"Why did you come to my house asking for me? It made Maya really upset." She told me, and I froze. I had hoped that her mom wouldn't tell her that I had gone to their house. It was a spur of the moment thing, I had wanted to be with max like Maya wanted to be with me. whatever she was hiding away from the world, I wanted so bad to be the one that she could trust with that secret, even though I was the last person on the planet to deserve it.

"I just wanted to know if you had the english homework." I quickly lied smoothly, and she cocked an eyebrow at me, clearly skeptical. I flipped the two quesadillas out of the pan and onto a plate for Max, cutting them into eight sections, and pouring a little salsa into a tiny dipping bowl for her and slid it across the counter to her, wisps of steam still floating up from the warm food. She set Total on the ground, and without hesitation, took a bite of the quesadilla. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch, and her chewing paused.

I dropped another buttered tortilla into the pan and Max started to re-dip the bitten end of the quesadilla back into the salsa and biting back into it, her eyelids drooping a little.

"Is it okay?" I asked cautiously, and her eyes flew open and she nodded to me, talking out of the side of her full mouth.

"Keep 'em coming Nick." She told me, and I chucked, pointing the spatula at her.

"Call me Fang." She gave me a curious glance up from her food.

"Why?" She asked, swallowing and getting up to get two sodas from the fridge and popping the top of one of them. I shrugged as she slid back into her seat, taking a swig of her soda.

"My babysitter used to call me that." I told her, folding and flipping another set of quesadillas.

"Why?" She asked again, and I cracked a smile at her antics.

"Because I would bite when I got angry." I told her, and she spurted a laugh, having to cover her mouth with her hand because she had too much food in her mouth. She quickly finished chewing and swallowed her food,

"I guess you look like you have fangs too." She said nonchalantly, stirring her second to last peice of quesadilla in her salsa.

"Your canines look like wolf teeth." She said with a cautious smile, before she bit into her last piece of Quesadilla, and pushing her plate towards me across the counter.

"More?" She asked, laying her arms down on the counter and laying her chin on top of them, giving me a sheepish smile, looking at me up through her eyelashes, just like she always did in the hallway. My heart picked up a few paces, and I wrinkled my nose at her.

"You get the next few. I get to eat too." She stuck out her lower lip at me, before closing her eyes and waiting patiently. I took out the two quesadillas and started on Max's next few. Total flopped down on my sock feet, letting out a warm huff of air on my ankle. I cooked in silence, and Max just closed her eyes and sighed, her eyebrows going back into their seemingly permanent furrow. I scooped out the last quesadilla and immediately putting another sizzling tortilla into the pan, and her eyes sprung wide open again. I took a bite and prepared her last quesadilla, sliding it back to her across the counter, and she immediately went to work, practically inhaling the last of it.

She slid her plate back, and laid her head back down on the counter. I chewed slowly, taking a few sips of my soda, and watching her shoulders slightly rise and fall, her breathing slowing down and becoming deeper. God, this girl could seriously sleep anywhere. I took a swig of my soda and finished off the last of my quesadilla. I pushed my plate away and went over to where Max was slumped over on the counter. I hooked my elbow under her legs and pulled her up out of the chair, her body feeling featherlight in my arms.

She jerked awake, jumping so suddenly I almost dropped her. She sighed and settled tensely back into my arms.

"Fuck. I forgot I was here." She groaned, fidgeting and snuggling deeper into my chest. She took a fistfull of my black Chiodos tee-shirt, gripping it tight and closing her eyes again. My heartbeat picked up again, but I shook it off and climbed the stairs, pushing open the door to my bedroom with my my toe and walking sideways through the threshold, carefully laying max down on my bed, un-twining her fingers from my tee-shirt and brushing a strand of her honey colored hair out of her face. I took the knot blanket stretched out across the foot of the bed and laid it over her, taking a glance at her before stripping out of my leather jacket and leaving the room.

I padded quietly down the stairs, and back into the kitchen to clean up my mess. I had dishes in the sink leftover my my dinner last night and my breakfast, and the kitchen was due to be cleaned. I stretched, glad to be free of my jacket. I loaded the dishwasher with all my old dishes, and got to work washing the pot I used for pasta last night and the pan. Total played around on the floor with a stuffed soccer ball, sliding around on the grey tile. I dried them and put them away, and then moved into cleaning my already clean house. I swept, wiped down counters, and even contemplated giving Total a bath in the kitchen sink.

I flopped down on the white, stainless living room couch, turning on my xbox and flipping through my netflix account. Resuming my last episode of how I met your mother, I glanced up the stairs, still in a daze. Max was sleeping in MY house!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12-Max P.O.V.

I bolted upright, surveying the room around me with my head pounding. Drawn shades casting the room into a dim light and I was curled up under a grey blanket with...deer on it? I pulled my hair back away from my face and back into a messy ponytail.

Where was my hat? I must have lost it when Maya kicked me. I traced my split bottom lip and dangled my legs over the side of Nick, no, Fangs bed. His bed was low to the ground with no headboard and navy blue sheets. A couch in a raised alcove in the far right of the room, a t.v. across from it and a black steel mini fridge next to it. I stood, my legs feeling weak under me, and I was relieved that I still had all my clothes on.

This was a bad, bad, bad idea. I had practically clung onto him, and he probably had the wrong idea about me now. that I had forgiven him or something ridiculous. But I couldn't deny that it wasn't exactly horrible, being carried around by him. And he hadn't been mean to me in around a month, but he hadn't exactly been nice either, excluding today. And I had enjoyed it, being carried around and babied, playing with his dog and sleeping on his abnormally good-smelling bed.

I stood up, able to wiggle my toes without them feeling all fuzzy now. But what was I going to do about Maya, and about my mom. She was probably going to kill me, but she could never know why. Jesus, she didn't really know anything about me, nothing about how horrible I really was.

I walked around the end of the bed, and carefully opened a door, finding Fangs bathroom. I flicked on the lights, everything dark blue and dark wood. I went to the bathroom and washed my hands, wiping around my eyes to get rid of any remnants of sleep and tears from earlier today, my split lip still in tact. I wiped my face on a black towel hanging from a ring mounted on the wall next to the sink, trying not to cringe at my reflection in the mirror. I half wanted to sing "Who is that girl I see" from Mulan, but I didn't.

I crept back into Fangs room, taking a sweep around the room to make sure that he hadn't come in. I took the time to look around the dim room, the shades drawn. Everything was either grey or navy blue, and in the far right corner was a raised alcove with a television and a couch, a black guitar sat on a stand and a black case lay on the ground next to it. I didn't touch anything, and just walked around the perimeter of the room.

Clothes littered the floor, along with books and paper. Fang had books everywhere, but no bookcase, and his glass desk was almost overrun with the different colors and sizes of books, his laptop balances haphazardly on top of a pile. Subconsciously, my eyebrows furrowed, I couldn't pin Fang as the book type, especially as I flipped through his piles of books, complicated subjects like anatomy, physiology, and anatomy. But scattered among them were mythology books, murder mysteries, and a few chapter books.

His leather jacket was thrown into a chair, and the door was left ajar. I gently pushed the door open, and it silently swung forward. I looked down the long end of the hall, it looked almost grey and uninhabited. Sort of like you would expect a house to look like in a zombie movie, so quiet and still like no one else lived here but Fang. Where were his parents? Surely he had them, his house was huge and he had fresh food and still went to school.

I shuddered and turned away from the hall, the pressing feeling that a zombie was going to amble lazily out of one of the half open doors. I tiptoed down the metal stairs, which were ridiculously modern and cold under my sock feet. The muted sounds of the television downstairs wafted up the stairs, and I froze in place. Fang was watching Top Gear, a show I had heard my sister whine to her friends about. I had watched it a few times, but didn't usually watch much because I didn't like to go out of my room when my mom or sister were home.

I peeked around the wall that separated the front hall from the living room, seeing Fang stretched out on the couch, facing away from me with only the back of his head showing. I tried to sneak out of Fangs house, and got to the front hall where my shoes were tipped over. I tugged my hoodie sleeves lower on my hands and leaned down the pull on my left shoe, but slammed my head into the wall.

"Max?" Fang is watching me over the back of the couch. My face heating up, I rubbed at my hairline where I whacked into the wall.

"Are you leaving?" he asked, his face slowly setting in stone, just like it used to when he got angry. I looked down at my feet, too afraid to move fast, in fear that if I moved too fast I would upset him. I looked back down at my feet, one shoe on, the other lying on its side. My eyes flicked back up for a second, to see fang grip his mouth together, his jaw so tight the muscles in his jaw and neck rippled as he gripped them tightly together.

"I'm not really helping my cause by being here." I told him, as calmly as I could, with his dark eyes digging into mine. He didn't say anything, and just continued to watch me. The T.V. people in the background began to yell, and I just kept talking nervously when he didn't reply to me.

"I mean, you know why Maya hates me so much, don't you? Its because of something I did, or something that I can't change. Whatever I did to keep out from under her feet didn't help me one bit." Fang just flinched, and I fiddled with the strings on my hood.

"Its because you don't care about her." Then the realization dawned on me, why he was the one who pulled me off Maya, why he hadn't pushed or verbally threw me around in so long. I had to make him stop, because if he kept up with what he was doing, we would both be totally screwed.

"She hates me because you care about me more than her." His eyes dropped, his black fringe hanging down to hide his eyes, and my stomach dropped. he had just confirmed everything I had said without uttering a single word.

"Why me?" I practically whispered, suddenly unable to find air. I was the plain Martinez sister, completely average in every way. Plain face, shapeless body, my hair was always tangly and wasn't long or cut in a cute style. I probably looked dingy in Fangs all white and glass house.

He turned off the television and stood up, from the waist up he seemed to slump forward, his hair still hiding his face. He folded his arms tightly to his chest as he turned to face me, the feeling of dread bubbling up in my stomach again. Instead of a harsh glare, he looked vulnerable, his eyes slightly wider and face blank, and I blinked, a little shocked.

"Because you never fought back."


	13. Chapter 13 (This chapter Is pointless)

Chapter 13-Max P.O.V.

I left the door open behind me, not even bothering to put on my other shoe as I walked as fast as I could away from Fangs house.

Because I didn't fight back? What the hell did that mean? Was it some sort of sick dominance fetish he was talking about, Ugh...thats just gross. Taking me to his house was probably just a ploy, but he looked different when he said that, he looked vacant in the head, a little bit lost. I wiped under my eyes furiously as tears started to spill.

"Max!" I hear Fang calling behind me and the front door to his house slamming shut. I pick up my pace and look down at my feet, wishing desperately that he would just leave me alone. His footsteps came up behind me, and his fingers brushed the back of my tricep, but I yanked away my arm before he could grip me.

"Come On Max, talk to me." I let out a strangled whimper and a new wave of tears. I hated this, I hated how he was making me feel like I was weak, I was so freaking done with being weak. I drew my arms into my stomach and tried to walk away from him, he was just making this harder than it needed to be.

He huffed and tried to step in front of me, and I crouched down and bolted away from him, taking off at a sprint with blurry eyes and tight lungs not really working to my advantage.

"Hey!" He bolted after me, and I poured on the speed, not having any idea where I was going. My feet barely grazed the pavement as we flew past all the other huge brick country houses. The houses started to grow farther and farther apart, and a gap in the thick trees with a sign indicated the opening to a trail. I ran towards the opening, hoping to lose Fang once in the woods.

My lungs started to burn, and the woods started to thin out and a clearing with soccer fields and picnic benches appeared. I stopped running, and bent over, my hands on my knees and taking deep breaths. I really needed to get outside more, and Tumblr wasn't really helping with that.

Light footfalls came up behind me, and Fang just stood next to me, while I wheezed for breath. Right...he was the runningback for the football team, he could probably run forever.

"I just need you to listen." he told me firmly, and I straightened, shot him a venomous glare, and turned to walk away. He gripped onto my wrist, and I tried to rip it out of his grasp, but he held on.

"Let go of me!" I screeched, and shoved his away from me square in the chest as hard as I could, knocking him over, but he still held onto my wrist and dragged me down with him.

I landed with an oof on his chest, and he released my wrist. I lifted my head and glared again.

"Pervert." I mumbled, and he just let out a sharp huff of air. He brushed his hair out of his face and shot me an aggravated glance.

"It sounded really wrong in your mind, but that not how I meant it." He got out quickly, and I scrambled away from him to sit next to where he was lying in the grass. I pulled my knees up to my chest, it was the beginning of December, and the cold was beginning to set in.

"Sure its not. Can I go home now?" I asked quickly, not wanting to create a stickier situation than I already had. Fang bolted upright in the grass, a frown on his usually placid features.

"No." He said firmly, and I pushed him over in the grass a little harder than necessary, hoping he would hit his head and hopefully knock a few stones back in place up there. I stood and brushed myself off, tightening my hold on the cuffs of my sweatshirt.

"Thanks for helping me out this morning." I told him, shooting him a smile, that came out more like a grimace. I turned on my heel and walked away over the dew covered soccer fields, tacking in a deep breath through my nose. The sound of Fang tearing at the grass behind me slowly fading as I walked farther and farther away over the soccer fields, until I reached the small elementary school on the other side. I looked back over the fields, Fangs back just a small black line next to a painted white goal post.

"Whatever." I muttered to myself, walking past the small school and just wandering around the quiet suburban streets until I found a street that I recognized and made my way back home. Finding my street, I reached for my phone in my back pocket, but I didn't feel it. I whipped around.

"Fuck!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs at no one in particular. I had left my backpack at Fangs house, along with my phone and everything in my pack. Frustrated, I pinched the back of my hand and stomped up the porch steps and took the spare key that was under a rock in a planter. I went to unlock the door, but it swung open as I was about to unlock the door. My mom stood in the doorway and yanked me inside, enrapturing me in a fierce hug. I stood stock still, knowing the storm was coming.

"Oh, my baby..." My mom mumbled into my hair, and I wrapped my arms around her waist in return, inhaling the scent of her perfume.

"Uhh, what are you doing home?" I asked timidly, and she pulled away from me, holding my be the shoulders at arms length, a stern look on her face.

"I carted your sister off to the hospital to set her nose and then came home, not knowing where you were. Um, I made some tea...its in the living room." She told me, gesturing down the hallway, and I followed her obediently and sat across from her on the sofa, taking a warm cup of tea from on top of the glass coffee table, wisps of the sweet smelling tea wafting around the edges of the white lip of the cup.

"I went to a friends house for a little while after school to cool down a little bit. Sorry." I apologized, keeping my eyes down on my hands. She chuckled, and took a sip from her cup of tea.

"Just tell me what happened baby." I looked up at her, a strained smile on her face. She really tried to be a good mom, and I felt a pang in my chest. If I could just stay out of Mayas way for just a year and a half before I graduate it would be so much easier on her.

I fidgeted uneasily on the couch before retelling the events of the fight this morning, leaving out the finer details of Mayas taunting and Fang taking me to the nurse and his house. At some parts of the story, my moms hand would tighten around the handle of her mug so hard that her knuckles would turn white, her lips pressing into a fine line whenever she wanted to say something, but didn't. I finished up the last of my story, the feeling of dread rising up in my stomach again, and my mom just stood up from her chair and hugged me again.

"Thanks for telling me. I'll need to have a talk with your sister." She told me, a frown settling into her features as she turned away from me to pick up her now empty cup from the coffee table.

"I'm going to pick up Maya. get some sleep, okay?" She stroked my hair and I nodded, taking a sip of the spicy tea, leaning back into the couch as the door slammed and I heard her car back out of the driveway.

**Hey guys, so this segment of this chapter has a dark theme, so I guess this is a warning. If you don't agree with what Im writing that's okay, if it disturbs you I apologize. **

Fang P.O.V.

"Thanks for helping me out this morning." Max told me, shooting me what seemed like a genuine smile, but her eyes didn't smile like the rest of her face. With that, she turned on her heel and walked away over the dewey soccer fields, and I tore at the long, dying grass that I was holding onto.

I sat and tore at the grass as her back became smaller and disappeared the farther away she went. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, toying with the black case as Max faded from sight, leaving me behind. I hated being left behind, almost as much as I hated being rejected, and Max had done both, with one shoe on one shoe off. She didn't even try and she was totally crushing me, but I wasn't exactly helping my case much either. She would leave me behind just like my parents did, leave behind their fuck up son who could never say quite what he thought. I peeled off the case from my Iphone, the four pencil sharpener blades gathering at the bottom of the case in a little silver pile.

I sifted through them, trying to keep myself from screaming, I was so angry. Selecting one, I looked down at my cold arms, goosebumps in the cold because I forgot my jacket at home. Two years of dark red, white, and purple scars littered my arms from my wrists to my armpits, some of them long and thin, others shorter and the shape of narrowed eyelids. Underneath my scars, my veins stood out from under my skin from the cold.

I turned the tiny blade over and over in my fingers, my thoughts starting to overwhelm me. Everything that I had failed at, all the people that I had loved who I hurt haunting me at the back of my mind. I had fucked everything over with Max, got her beat up and only succeeded to drive her farther away from me. Maya probably hated me now too, her and all her friends would turn their backs on me, the only "friends" I had left was my football team, and they knew nothing about me. I didn't even want to get started on my parents, that always ended up badly.

The blade in my fingers alighted on a vein, with a flick of my wrist I made an inch long scratch in my skin, a split second later, beads on blood like string decorating the shallow cut. The sting was present for only a second, before fading blissfully. I cleared my throat as my failure of the day bubbled to the surface, picking up a rhythm with the blade, back and over down the line. Beads of blood gathered together and ran down the side of my arm. I dropped my hand and laid down on the damp grass, eyes open as I watched the clouds slowly crawl across the sky.

I hunted around in the grass for my phone and case, lifting it so I could see it. I wiped of my blade of my t-shirt and dropped it back into the black case, rearranging them and snapping my phone back in to hide them. My arm itched, but I ignored it and watched the clouds roll by as the wet, cold grass soaked the backs of my clothes. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath through the nose. I shivered, and sat up, the cold becoming a little too unbearable. Checking the time on my phone, it was a little past four, making I had been lying around in cold weather for half an hour and I had a furry dog child at home to feed.

I stood up, tucking my phone into my pocket and brushing grass off the back of my pants and tee-shirt. I strode away from the park the way I came, the pieces of my shield falling back in place as I walked back through the woods, the thick pine trees thinning into perfect uniform lines. I left the woods and walked back to my house, picking off the dried beads of blood, the white stone and glass looming over untrimmed bushes and dead flowers that I refused to pull up.

I pushed through the front door, and Total trotted up to me, letting out a whimper as he nudged the back of my calf. I knelt down, rubbing the top of his silky head. Total trotted away from me and into the kitchen, sitting down next to his food bowl with what I always swore was a smile on his face. I sighed and scooped out two cups of food for him, before flopping down at the breakfast bar.

Mondays really did suck.


	14. Chapter 14

**Soo, I don't usually do authors notes, but I just wanted to apologize for my lack of updates. I was in Ohio for a few weeks on a demolition team, smashin shit up. But I'm back and finally finished this chapter. Its not exactly all turmoil and excitement, but its important for later. :) Thanks for reading! r&r!**

** -Rico**

Max P.O.V. chapter 14:

"Max! Winter formal is in one week! Literally! if you don't have a dress by wednesday Angel and I will have no choice but to get one for you! And it will no doubt make you look gorgeous, not that you aren't already, but you could use some stardom after that nasty spat with your sister last month..." Nudge trailed off, and I tossed her most recent seventeen magazine aside, unable to find anything interesting to read in it.

"I already told you guys, I don't want to go." I sat up and dangled my legs over the side of Nudges bed. It had been a month since my fight with Maya, a blissfully quiet month, meaning Maya and her friends didn't dare to lay a single finger on me anymore. Not to say that I didn't have a little help. Fang seemed to be around every corner, waiting to make small talk or brush a strand of hair back away from my face, to my annoyance. I had stopped trying to get him to leave me alone, because he refused to go away, and I didn't want to create a scene.

"Max, If you don't go, I...I swear I'll..." Nudge clenched her fists and tried to look intimidating, before going soft, pushing out her lower lip a tiny bit, her eyes widening and glossing over with tears, dropping her chin just a tiny bit. I slapped my hands over my eyes and fell over onto my side on her bed.

"No. No Nudge, no bambi eyes." I whined, and the bed tipped away from me as she flopped down next to me, trying to pry my hands away from my eyes.

"Just say you'll go." Angel said simply from across the room, where she was lounging, painting her nails in one of Nudges beanbag chairs. I let Nudge pull away my hands, and I glared at Angel, trying to find an excuse not to go.

"Fine, but I'll only go if someone asks me." I said with an evil grin, and Angel rolled her eyes. Nobody would dare ask me to go to formal with them, for fear of what my sister would think.

"I bet Nick will ask you." Nudge said, giving me an equally evil smile. I groaned, flopping down on my back, Nudge and Angel both knew why that would be a catastrophe.

"Ugh, if he does i'm dead if I say yes or no." Angel stood up, the bottle of dark purple polish held by her index finger and thumb, blowing on the nails on her left hand.

"Then just avoid him or something. You can be like a ghost when you want too." Angel remarked, and I smiled a little. I had actually never gone to a dance before, the idea of it was too intimidating. Dresses, flowers and dancing, three of my most hated things.

"Just watch Max, someone cute is going to ask you and you'll have a great time."

I pushed through the black double doors, shivering. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground, and in my haste to get out of my house, I forgot my winter coat in my room. I wove through all the kid everywhere to my locker, trying to ignore all the curious glances at me. I took a quick glance around the hall before undoing my combination and stuffing my chemistry book into my backpack, not even bothering to zip it before hurrying to chemistry, where I hoped I would be able to avoid Fang.

"Morning Maxie!" Iggy appeared in the crowd of people, walking next to me in my race to the chemistry room. I flashed him a nervous smile as I walked past a group of chatting teachers and found my seat across from Iggys at the cluttered lab table at the back of the room.

"What got you so riled up, fair lady?" Iggy asked, running his hand through the top of his messy, stylishly cut hair. I sighed, and pulled out my notebook, leaning my elbows up on top of it.

"Nudge and Angel want me to go to winter formal." I told him wrinkling up my nose in a disgusted fashion. Iggy just snickered and pulled a silver water bottle out from his backpack, and I eyed it warily, and iggy raised his left eyebrow at me, giving me a troublesome grin.

¨Its just water. Promise."He told me as he took a swig from the water bottle. as he set it back down down the table, my sister, flanked by Ella and Brigid strutted into the room, and I rolled my eyes. Iggy turned in his seat to see where I was looking, and turned back to talk to me.

¨Looks like the whore brigade hasn't noticed that its winter yet.¨ He told me, and I snickered. he was right, they all dressed the same as they did in the summer, with short skirts and skimpy t-shirts paired with bright colored heels or boots, they looked ready to hit the west coast. Behind them came the jocks, who looked a little more winter prepared, donning either jeans or khakis with sweatshirts. Dylan turned towards Iggy and my table, sending an unsure smile my way. I quickly dropped my eyes, not sure what that smile meant.

I tapped my pen impatiently on the edge of my notebook, waiting for the chemistry teacher to show up. The stool next to me scraped backwards, and I peeked up at Iggy, who was too busy making faces at someone across the room.

"Uhh, Hi Max." I looked next to me, only to see Dylan looking at me with a shy smile on his face. I did my best to smile back, but just felt like I was choking. I quit tapping on my notebook as the teacher stepped in.

"We didn't have homework last night, if that's what you're after." I mumbled to him, keeping my eyes focused on the teacher. He chuckled slightly next to me, taking out his own notebook from his nike backpack on the floor next to his stool.

"You really think so low of me Max?" He whispered to me, and I just gave him a quiet sideways glance. he sat up straight in his chair, making me realize how close to me he had been. Iggy shot me a wary glance across the lab table, as the teacher apologise for being late and began to hand out the lab assignment.

"Well, I can't say that I think highly of you."

"I never did anything to hurt you." He told me matter of factly, receiving his paper from the teacher and scanning the page.

"But you never did anything to help me." I returned calmly, speaking truthfully. He never did anything to stop anyone from being mean to me, he only stood by while I was taunted. he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Is she always so hostile?" He asked Iggy from across the table, who had motioned over a girl from across the room to be his lab partner. Iggy snorted and went back to setting up the lab.

"Not usually. Just when she wants to be." I scowled and stuck my tongue out at him, and he wrinkled up his nose and stuck his tongue out at me. Dylan chuckled beside me and bent to take out the equipment for the lab from under the table. He set them on the table and I set them up, watching him carefully. Maybe he wasn't so bad, he wasn't really ever mean to me like his friends were...

Dylan just gave a good hearted smile and looked back down at the lab report, my mind racing too fast to see him nervously pull at the back of his hair or his fist tighten around his pencil.

"I wanted to ask you something." He asked nervously, as I began mixing the first two compounds together in little beakers. I just looked up at him for a brief second, indicating that I was listening.

"Are you going to the formal?" He asked casually, stooping down to observe the color change between the two compounds. My whole chest tightened up, do I say yes or no? if I said yes, maybe I would be able to get away from Nudge on a beauty rampage, and possibly throw off Fang for a little while.

"With friends." I said simply, acting like what i was telling him was no big deal. He scribbled something down on his lab report and I slid the two used beakers away, setting up for the next segment of the experiment again.

"How would you like to go with me? As a new friend." He said, with a warm, seemingly genuine smile. A quick, devious smirk from Iggy across the table was enough encouragement.

"I'd love too." A brilliant grin spreading over his face, and a more sheepish smile on mine.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Max P.O.V.

"Dylan asked you?!" Nudge squealed, and Angel standing bug eyed next to her.

"Dylan, as in captain of the football team and absolute dreamboat asked you to formal?!" Both girls simultaneously screamed at the tops of their lungs. I slapped my hands over my ears and screwed my eyes closed. Nudge grabbed my sleeve and shook it, trying to get me to take my hands off my ears.

"Max, tell us more about what happened!" Her muffled voice shouted, and Gazzy let out a laugh across the room. I tried to smother a smile as Nudge huffed and pushed me backwards, flopping down on her bed. I took my hands off my ears and Nudge frowned down at me and crossed her arms. Iggy tossed the seventeen magazine he was flipping through to the side and rolled onto his back on the floor.

"I can tell you how it went down, Nudge. I was sitting right across from them." I gave Iggy my best glare, but it was lost on him.

"You wouldn't." I said tonelessly, and Nudge flounced across the room and sat cross legged next to Iggy, rocking back and forth.

"Please tell me Iggy." She asked sweetly, and he sent me an evil glare.

"Let go get dressed first Nudgie, I'll share in the car." Nudge let out another ear shattering scream and I flopped back down on the bed, gathering the lavender comforter over my face. Nudge grabbed my ankle and tried to pull me off the bed.

"Nooo. I'm sleeping, leave me alone." I whined, but she yanked me off the bed and onto the floor.

"Comeon Maxie, its either dress now, or I'll be having a chat with mama Val." She told me, digging through her closet for a purse that probably matched her new sweater. Gazzy got up from where he was slumped over in a blue bean bag chair and tossed everyones coats around the room. It started snowing early friday, and so far hadn't stopped.

"But its snowing." I whined, as Angel pushed her arms through the sleeves of a winter coat that seemed to engulf her. I snickered at the sight of tiny angel in her huge, baby blue coat.

"Its not THAT cold Ange." She wrinkled up her nose at me and did the zipper of her coat.

"Well, this place isn't exactly Virginia, Maxie-Waxie." I got up from the bed and caught my coat as Gazzy threw it at me, pulling it on roughly over my shoulders and threw out my hair from the collar of my coat.

"Whatever, lets go." I followed Iggy and a chattering Nudge downstairs, and all of us piled into Iggys truck, Angel and Gazzy sandwiched on either sides of me in the backseat. Iggy passed his ipod back to me and I leaned forward to take it and turn on Pierce the Veil. Nudge groaned and leaned back in her seat.

"Not again Max." She whined, and I shushed her.

"You get to sit in the shotgun and no one in this car is going to listen to One Direction." She huffed and looked at Iggy for support, who was trying hard to smother a smile.

"Sorry Nudge." He chuckled.

"You guys are unbelievable." She said, the sound of her shiny silver coat rubbing together as she crossed her arms over her stomach. Iggy leaned over and poked her in the side, earning a smug smile and a smack on the wrist. Angel nudged me with her forehead and handed her phone to me.

"Look at Dominique's new profile picture, is that a smile or is she on crack?" I giggled and Angel began to fill me in on the weekly happenings and Iggy started telling Nudge the story of how Dylan asked me to formal.

I passed the phone to Gazzy and watched as his face screwed up at the image at Dominique practically grimacing at the camera.

"Maybe it would be better if she was wearing a whole shirt." I nodded as Nudge whipped around the back of her seat like a cat and swiped the phone out of Gazzy's hand.

"Hey!" She leaned slightly forward in her chair, looking like a gossip columnist examining a meaty piece for a front cover article. She motioned for Iggy to continue her story and the back seat rode in grumbling silence the rest of the way to the mall.

"Max! you can never tell what looks good until you actually put it on your body!" Nudge scolded, sifting through a rack of colorful and sequined dresses.

"I can tell what looks bad because everything is bad." I told her in a bored tone, and she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling of the store, Deb, or whatever.

"You're actually impossible to shop for!" She cried out dramatically, attracting the attention of all the other girls looking for winter formal dresses in the store. Angel looked over from where she was across the store and made her way over to us.

"I'm guessing you guys didn't find anything." Nudge sighed dramatically and continued fingering through a rack of size medium dresses.

"Max is being impossible again." Nudge told her matter of factly, and Angel just smiled sweetly and gripped my wrist and tugged me gently towards her.

"I'll take her for a while. Just look for a dress with Iggy or something." An evil smile spread over Nudges face and she bolted from the store to find Iggy, who was always at champs crying over baseball merch. I gave Angel a sideways glance and she tugged me towards the door.

"But my legs don't work in dress stores." I whined, when she pulled me towards Charlotte Russe next door. Angel huffed, and walked past the store and continued down, stopping in front of hot topic.

"Zip those lips Maxie." She told me, and I followed her half-willing into the store. Angel marched right up to the cashier at the front.

"My friend needs a formal dress and hates pink and sparkly things." The cashier looked down at the tiny, hollister wearing blonde, and then slowly moved her eyes to me, the ends of her lips curving up slightly in approval. Angel Then turned on her heel and walked quickly out of the store and back the way we came. I looked timidly back up at the cashier and she smiled a little more broadly at me, her silver lip ring going slightly crooked, and turned around to face the dressed hung up on the wall behind the register.

"What's your name, Tiny?" She asked, using a hook to take down a few dresses.

"Max." I told her, and she chuckled.

"Is it Maxine, or are you a crossdresser." I laughed, and she turned around, five dresses on her arm.

"Maximum, born a female, actually."

"What were your parents on when they named you that?" She asked, and I spurted a laugh.

"My name's Vera." She said, hanging up a black mesh maxi dress on the inside of the dressing room doors.

"Try this on. I'll help you." She gave me another smile and I went into the dressing room and shut the door. I pulled off my coat, jeans, and hoodie, and yanked on the dress grudgingly, the chilly air in the mall more noticeable without my coat. I looked down at my bare arms, and turned my wrists in as I stepped out of the dressing room.

Vera looked over me and motioned for me to turn, and I reluctantly turned and moved my arms so that she wouldn't be able to see them. When I faced her again, she gave me knowing glance and handed the the next dress on a hanger. I went back into the dressing room, slight shame bubbling up in my stomach. I yanked off the maxi dress and hung it on the hangar, and pulled on the next dress. The next one was an all lace, black bodycon with lace sleeves that reached all the way down to my wrists. I turned around in the mirror, admiring the dress a little.

I left the dressing room and looked for Veras green hair in the store, where she was talking to a group of kids near the front of the store. She turned and frowned, shaking her head at the dress, pulling at the shoulders of her asking Alexandria tee-shirt. I looked in the dressing room mirrors at the too-loose shoulders of the dress and frowned. They were way way too big. I snatched up the next dress without even looking at it and went back into the dressing room and whipping on the next dress.

The front was plain black and the skirt of the dress rose to just above the middle of my thigh, and a line of small spikes went around my waist. The back of the dress had a lace skull over the entire upper back of the dress. If I was Nudge, I probably would have squealed. I left the dressing room, totally forgetting about my lack of sleeves.

Vera gave me a full grin from across the store and swiped something up from where she was standing. She walked across the store and handed me a pair of fingerless gloves that matched the lace pattern of the dress, and went up to the middle of my forearms.

"Thats perfect!" She yelled, and shoved me back into the dressing room.

"Hope you like it cause you're buying it, sweetheart!" I smiled and pulled off the gloves and the dress, and put my normal clothes back on, my coat still a little warm. I checked out (with a few totally necessary band tees) and left to find Iggy, who was probably still crying over baseball at champs.

"Maxie!" Nudge called from behind me, as she jogged up to me, her arms loaded with bags.

"I thought today was only for dress shopping?" Nudge laughed and looped her arm over my shoulders and we walked into champs together, where Iggy was still looking through baseball jerseys and whatever else baseball people like.

"Wait, where's Angel, Max?" She asked, and I shrugged, and her eyes flew open and she clawed for my bag, which I calmly held just out of her reach.

"What did you buy Maximum Naira Martinez!" She screeched.

"A dress." She fell back on a red couch with no back and sighed dramatically.

"I accept defeat, when I comes to shopping with you." Iggy looked over and grinned, making his way over to us with Gazzy.

"What did you kill her with, Max?" nudge raised her head, and mumbled weakly.

"You can't kill me Max, Not even with your horrible fashion taste." She let her head fall back just as Gazzy rolled his eyes and his twin walked into the store.

"Woa, who killed Nudge?" Angel asked sweetly, and Nudges eyes flew open and she was up on her feet and shaking Angels shoulders.

"How could you let her buy a dress without approving it first! Its probably going to be a giant band tee-shirt and then her sister will totally be all like "Nudge what the hell" and I'll probably melt into a pool of rejected beauty and then I won't be able to get into a journalism school and graduate at he took of my class and wear red lipstick and break hearts just like Marina and I'll have to be a hobo or something!" She stood there not even out of breath, and Angel just patted Nudges head and replied.

"I'll remember that next time." She looked past Nudge at Iggy.

"Lets go Iggles. I'm hungry."


End file.
